We may have all be learning in our homes, far far away from our lovely Heath Mount, but that didn’t stop us from having an epic science-fiction themed World Book Day 2021!

We definitely chose a prescient theme this year; there was something fitting about having all of our pupils beaming into us on screens, resplendent in a range of bookish costumes. Some of our upper year pupils even showed off their tech skills, using their Zoom backgrounds and filters to great effect!   

World Book Day is the culmination of a term of book-related activities, including the sharing of our science-fiction reading list in January and visits including Irish storyteller Niall de Bùrca (below left) and the children’s author and photographer Ifeoma Onyefulu (right).

World Book Day was another opportunity to celebrate our love of reading. Pre-Prep had lots of fun guessing the identity of ‘The Masked Reader’ as members of staff hid behind life-like CGI masks to entertain the pupils with well-loved children’s tales. Year 1 also created character profiles whilst Year 4 took part in a special World Book Day book quiz!

As well as promoting a wider love of reading, this World Book Day has given us lots of opportunities to broaden our pupils’ knowledge of science-fiction. Year 2 read the Oliver Jeffers book The Way Back Home in their literacy lessons this week. They explored how the Martian and the boy worked together to solve the problem and then wrote a ‘what happens next’ story. Pupils in Year 3 have been exploring the sci-fi animation Reverso and using their knowledge of formal and informal English to write a diary about the main character. Pupils in Years 5-8 were challenged by the ‘Mission to Mars’ virtual escape room where they had to work with a team to solve a series of tricky puzzles using reading and spelling skills.  Some pupils from Upper School studied extracts from H. G. Wells’ classic The War of the Worlds before working as a team to prepare a radio drama that they will record soon.

Science-fiction has also been making appearances in other parts of the school. Year 3 and 4 pupils have been making links to science-fiction in their IT lessons, talking about how science-fiction inventions like robots, space ships and voice activation are based in real computer science.  In music lessons, Year 5  listened to Holst’s Planets and linked the musical movements to the planets, learning what each name meant.  On Friday they focused on Mars, the Bringer of War and learned the rhythmic ostinato using the word rhythm ‘get in a space ship, go to Mars’. In the Modern Foreign Languages department, Year 7 and 8 had great fun creating profiles of sci-fi characters in their Spanish lessons . Over in the Pre-Prep, the sports department continued their literacy-themed work-outs with a special workout all about space.  

From Left: a Year 6 pupil dresses up as Rozzum The Wild Robot, Middle: Pre-Prep siblings embrace the Science Fiction theme, Right: Nursery children showed off their costumes to Snooker, the Headmaster's Dog who came as Pongo from 101 Dalmations!