With World Book Day approaching within the week, the English department at Eastlea Community School has set out to ensure the great celebration of imagination within books and the utility of literacy in everyday life.

 

World Book Day is an annual charity event held in the UK and Ireland and is a localisation of an event of the same name first organised by UNESCO in 1995.

 

This Friday, not only will decorations be set up around English classrooms in honour of the event, but members of the English department will also be expected to dress up as characters from the classic fairytale of Snow White. 

 

The fairytale focus comes from the general theme for this year’s celebration: how the context of written media can change over time. To present this, the department will focus heavily on the original Grimms’ interpretations of folktales that were eventually popularised in Disney films (think Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and - of course - Snow White); how the more disturbing themes and aspects were altered in order to better suit a message or audience.

 

As well as that, a question-and-answer type scavenger hunt will also be set up around the school - any student that completes this will receive a small prize as well as have their names put into a prize draw for a chance of receiving a free kindle.

 

Overall, much effort is being put into promoting the power of words and how they influence society - in the words of Ms Khanom, one of the English teachers at Eastlea: “words have the power to change the world; […] [everyone in the department] has really pulled it together to make sure that World Book Day is really special for all of our students.”