School comes together for World Book Day celebration

Friendship and community were the themes when St Aidan’s Catholic Primary in Ashington celebrated this year’s World Book Day on Thursday 5 March.

Children across all year groups at the school took part in a range of book-based activities inspired by Joseph Coelho’s The Tower.

“The story explores themes of imagination, friendship, community, and seeing the world from different perspectives,” explained Headteacher Julie Teer.

“Through this book, children learned about empathy, creativity, resilience, and the importance of working together. Activities encouraged discussion, storytelling, art, and reflection linked to these powerful themes.”

“All children across the school took part in the celebrations, from every year group. World Book Day is a whole-school event designed to bring our entire reading community together,” she continued.

“Our Tower provided a strong unifying theme for the day, celebrating imagination and the power of stories to transform how we see the world.”

Throughout the week, St Aidan’s also hosted a Scholastic Book Fair, giving children and their families the opportunity to visit after school to choose books to purchase together, while World Book Day itself saw staff and pupils alike dressing as their favourite fictional characters.

“Children dressed up as their favourite book characters, and we were delighted by the creativity and effort shown,” said Mrs Teer. “Costumes ranged from classic storybook heroes and heroines to more modern fictional favourites.

“Staff also joined in the fun, with costumes ranging from an octopus to a purple crayon! Seeing adults taking part helps to show children that reading is something to be celebrated at every age.”

To round off the day, the school held a Best Costume Competition, where a winner from each class received the prize of choosing a book from the Book Fair.

“World Book Day is important because it promotes a lifelong love of reading,” added Mrs Teer. “Books open doors to new worlds, ideas, and opportunities. They help children develop vocabulary, imagination, empathy, and confidence.

“By celebrating reading in a fun, engaging way, we help children see books not just as part of learning, but as a source of joy and inspiration.”