As we celebrate both 100 years since Women were given the vote and the popular TV series ‘Derry Girls’ it seemed only fitting that the theme of this year’s World Book Day in Thornhill should be ‘Women and Literature’.
The first event of the day was the ever popular Treasure Hunt. Hidden around the school were 100 small cards, either bearing the images of a book cover of a book written by a female or the iconic image of the 1918 ‘Votes for Women’. At breaktime pupils raced around the school eagerly in search of these cards and those lucky enough to find one brought it to the library where they received a prize!
After breaktime we were delighted to welcome past pupil and author Claire Allan to the school. She spoke to approximately 50 Sixth Year students about her experiences of writing in school, as a journalist and an author. We were also very privileged to have an exclusive reading from Claire’s upcoming novel 'Her Name Was Rose'. Needless to say our students were enthralled and totally engaged, as evidenced in the Question and Answer session at the end. No doubt she has created a renewed passion and inspiration for many of our budding authors! Claire signed some of her books which we have in our library and presented the school with a copy of 'The First Time I Said Goodbye'. We also presented Claire with the most recent copy of ‘The Habit’ as she was the editor of our school magazine when she was in Sixth Year! She seemed to love it as very shortly after she tweeted her delight at the ‘Shoes of the World’ article”.
At lunchtime the library was a veritable hub of reading for Key Stage 3 pupils. We had a book-swap where pupils brought in books they had finished with and were able to swap it for some new reading material for free. Such a lovely way to spread the love of reading with each other! There was also a quiz based on female authors and all correct entries were entered into a draw for coveted prizes!
The main event of World Book Day was the re-launch of the school magazine ‘The Habit’. The magazine celebrates the school life of girls, showcases the talent of our girls, and was the focal point of the last episode of ‘Derry Girls’, therefore it seemed only fitting to re-launch in keeping with our theme of Women and Literature. The magazine was written and produced in a very quick turn around and has some superb articles written by our pupils. The front and back cover, in keeping with tradition was hand-drawn. The images on front and back were courtesy of some very talented Year 14 pupils! The magazine has had a very positive response and pupils are looking forward to the next edition!
The 'Shoes of the World' article
Below is a gallery of the days events:
