Last week we enjoyed celebrating our annual book week here at ISA, and what a week it was! From reading-related activities to dressing up as our favourite non-fiction personalities, plenty of book-based fun and games were had... our students and teachers were thrilled to take part throughout the week!

The theme for 2023 was ‘non-fiction’, a genre that provides information true to the real world, covering topics such as history, science, and even real-life stories. We think that it’s important for our students to learn through the power of reading, and what better way to encourage this this than through an entire week related to books?

The aim of Book Week at ISA is to not only deepen the students love and appreciation of reading but to help them to continue to improve on their ability to process information via text form – and to have fun in the process. From understanding a deeper meaning to what they read, learning a new fact or even word... there’s so much that an old-fashioned book can provide our students with. Something often taken for granted with the latest digital technologies on the go.

For our younger students, Book Week provides them with the opportunity to learn more on how to decode written content and build on their vocabulary, whereas for our older students who have already advanced from the ‘learning to read’ to the ‘reading to learn’ stage, it challenges the evaluation of what they are reading – for example, identifying possible sources of bias.

World Book Day also fell on the Thursday of last week, the official Book Day of the year. World Book Day changes lives through encouraging children to build on their love of books and reading. Created by charity ‘National Book Tokens’, their mission for this day is to promote reading for pleasure and offer every student and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own.

The day started with a student-led assembly that featured an exciting preschool parade. There was no timetable for the entire day, instead, teachers planned activities that were based on non-fiction books. For example, Mandy Goynes, our art instructor, created an exciting project that was inspired by a book on Claude Monet to initiate an art activity inspired by his work .

We had several other activities that ran over the course of the week… here’s an insight to some of the non-fiction fun that our students got to experience.

• Students engaged in cross-grade buddy reading, in which students from different grades had the opportunity to read to one another, and even to the teachers too!
• Some of our younger students were tasked with designing their own versions of book covers for their favourite non-fiction books.
• We arranged a Book Swap in our library, where students brought in their old books in return for a voucher that they could use to purchase a new one, that had been provided by a member of our community. Showcasing not only the wide variety of books available but the value of sharing and generosity amongst the students.
• Taking inspiration from the TV show ‘The Masked Singer’, we introduced ’The Masked Reader’, where teachers dressed up and read to the children, leaving the students to figure out who the storyteller was!

Thank you to everyone who took part in our non-fiction themed week and to those who helped to organise all the activities involved. Reading is fundamental to not only the development of students, but for continuous learning throughout everyone’s lives.

We certainly found this year to be full on inspiring lessons and activities, and it was great to see our students share their love for reading too! Not to mention learning about the world around them.