PUPILS at a North-East school put their own spin on World Book Day this year by encouraging pupils and staff to dress as their favourite adjectives.

Polam Hall School, in Darlington, encouraged children to dress-up in a way that embodies their favourite descriptive words alongside a variety of other book-themed activities.

The Northern Echo: Year 1 celebrate World Book Day in styleYear 1 celebrate World Book Day in style (Image: Chris Barron)

Louise Blair, the Reading Lead for Polam Hall’s junior school, said: “We’ve kept the tradition of letting the children come dressed as their favourite literary characters, but we also wanted to open it up a bit this year, and decided to include ‘adjective costumes’ to help promote vocabulary and new words.

“Sometime costumes can be very expensive to buy, and we wanted to give our families more options for things they could put together from clothing they already own.

“We’ve had ‘sporty’, ‘brave’, ‘clever’, ‘beautiful’, and loads more adjective costumes. It’s been lovely to see because the children have really embraced the idea and thought outside the box.”

The Northern Echo: Teacher Louise Blair, dressed as the adjective ‘polychromatic’, with pupils (from left) Frank Hedley (dressed as a ‘Gold’ Golden ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Amy Coates (as the ‘mischievous’ Cat in the Hat), Izzy Waterfall-Brown and Tyler McLucas (as ‘clever’ Hermione Granger and ‘brave’ Harry Potter), Toby Luder (as Tom Gates), and Noel Longstaff-Parker (as Paddington Bear)Teacher Louise Blair, dressed as the adjective ‘polychromatic’, with pupils (from left) Frank Hedley (dressed as a ‘Gold’ Golden ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Amy Coates (as the ‘mischievous’ Cat in the Hat), Izzy Waterfall-Brown and Tyler McLucas (as ‘clever’ Hermione Granger and ‘brave’ Harry Potter), Toby Luder (as Tom Gates), and Noel Longstaff-Parker (as Paddington Bear) (Image: Chris Barron)

Louise came to work dressed as the word ‘polychromatic’. “I feel like it really suits me,” she laughed. “It’s a bright, colourful, cheery, word that the children probably haven’t come across yet, so hopefully they’ve learned at least one new word today!

“My big task is going round and writing down all the adjectives the children are dressed as, and then at the end of the day we’re going to share a story written using all those fabulous words!”

The school also welcomed the Mayor of Darlington, Councillor Jan Cossins, who read Michael Rosen’s classic story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ to the school’s Reception class.

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She said: “I was delighted to be asked to visit Polam Hall School to help them celebrate World Book Day. The children were a delight, and I was made to feel very welcome.

“Reading at a young age is so important, and it was wonderful to see first-hand how much the school is doing to foster a love of literature in its pupils.”

Pupils spent a jam-packed day exploring a variety of reading-themed activities, including a character hunt, listening to books read by teachers, story quizzes, and a visit by local children’s author, Peter Barron, and illustrator, Jonathan Raiseborough.

The Northern Echo: Local illustrator Jonathan Raiseborough showed pupils how to draw Zizu Zebra from Zizu Loses His StripesLocal illustrator Jonathan Raiseborough showed pupils how to draw Zizu Zebra from Zizu Loses His Stripes (Image: Peter Barron)