Pupils and staff at Llanyrafon Primary School celebrated World Book Day today with the news that they’re being given £1,000 to buy new books.
Eve Rowlands, headteacher, said: “World Book Day is a fabulous opportunity to promote reading. Reading is such an important life skill.”
The catering staff in the canteen had also dressed up as their favourite book characters and were happy to pose for a photo shortly before the lunchtime rush began.
I walked through the school hall and there were around a dozen groups of children of varying ages sat on the floor reading to each other. Staff paired up different year groups and put them together.
Mrs Rowlands said: “It’s really lovely having the older children reading with the younger children and just developing that love of books. The older children have been really proud to share their reading skills with the younger ones and with the younger ones looking up to their older peers with so much pride. They’ve had a really lovely time.
“So every child has been able to read with another child.”
“We work really closely with our cluster schools, Llantarnam, Maendy, Pontnewydd, Crownbridge, Ponthir, and Croesyceiliog (primary and secondary).
“As a cluster, we’re looking to promote reading. We want to make sure that the experiences our children receive in primary school follows through to the secondary school so we’re using the same accelerated reader programme.”
The Cwmbran Trust
She said the Cwmbran Trust had “very kindly” given each of the cluster schools £1,000 to spend on new books.
She said: “Everybody has really embraced World Book Day. It’s lovely for the children to see the adults join in and get involved. We all love books, we all love reading and we’ve all got our favourite characters so I think for the whole school to come together and to celebrate World Book Day is a real joy and pleasure.”