Downfield Primary School put on a week of events centred around two ‘reading tents’ to make sure everyone had the chance to enjoy books with their friends.

The book tents were available to everyone. As one pupil said:

“There’s bean bags and chairs and that, and you can come in and read books at lunchtime."

Depute Head Teacher Fiona Ballie explained why they work so hard to make World Book Week a positive event for pupils.

“World Book Day is hugely important. All too often children feel that reading is a chore and it’s a punishment. But we can tap into the energy and enthusiasm that comes from activities during the World Book Week. I think it’s absolutely vital to the kids, to foster a love of reading.” 

Four pupils looking through a pile of books

The school also ran a book swap, and invited guest readers to the tent. Fiona described what was happening.

“We’ve got a book swap where the kids bring in a book that they’ve got at home, that they’re finished with. They can then swap it with somebody else. And if children don’t have a book at home, they can still take a book away with them. There’s no real expectation that you have to bring a book in. We lined up some special guest readers – parents - to come in and read at lunchtimes. The tents themselves were a very popular venue at breaktimes.”

The enthusiasm of children was obvious. As Ailsa and Jack said: 

“I think it's really fun and lots of kids love to read in here", "Yeah, cause then your friends can read these sort of books inside of it!”