In March 2022, we celebrated World Book Day. This year, it was even more special as we celebrated the 25^th anniversary of World Book Day! We really tried to make this a World Book Day to remember as we haven’t been able to celebrate in our usual style over the last couple of years. Therefore, staff considered this year’s theme long and hard! Staff decided that this year’s theme will be ‘Performance Poetry’. As with every year, there is a focus text that each class explores, and this year the chosen text was Robert McFarlane’s ‘The Lost Words: A Spell Book’.

We started the week with an inspirational assembly, which saw rapping teachers, a poetry recital from our very own Headteacher, as well as a superstar performance from Newcastle’s very own, DJ Snazzy. It really set the tone for the week!

Feeling inspired and creative, the pupils set off on their task, exploring a wide range of poems and poets. By the end of the week, each class worked collaboratively to compose and perform a class poem. The children took real ownership of this and chose the theme, style and even the way in which their poem was performed!

To bring our World Book Week to a close, we celebrated by gathering as a whole school to share our poetry performances. The children embodied the St. Stephen’s way throughout each performance, as they demonstrated confidence, determination, respect and most importantly, enjoyment throughout the assembly. Not only that, but our children also delighted in teaching their peers (and staff!) new vocabulary! It really was a joy to watch!

As always, the children made the staff extremely proud of their hard work and wonderful performances, and if you keep watching, I’m sure you will see why!