On Thursday 5 March Heathfield students celebrated World Book Day with a cunning literary challenge: The Library of Lost Legends Escape Room!
In English lessons, students in Years 7-9 worked in teams to crack the code to the padlock that locks away the hidden treasure. They were faced with book-themed quizzes, letter codes to crack, classroom scavenger hunts and there was even a little bit of numeracy included to prove that these English and maths can absolutely go hand in hand!
We believe that stories are more than just words on a page—they are worlds to be explored. This activity aimed to spark a passion for reading, engage their creativity and unlock their puzzle-solving skills.
Student Voice on Reading
Last week, students completed a survey. In keeping with the theme of World Book Day and the National Year of Reading 2026, students told us what their perfect book would be about. The aim is for students to go and find that perfect book and read all about the things that they love. This inspired the video that some students were involved in that you can see linked below.
Our survey showed how varied our students’ interests are. Students wanted to read books about adventurous real-life events to stories about sporting super stars who overcome obstacles in their journeys to more factual books about war to farming stories to books related to Greek mythology to murder mystery stories and more.
More Reading Activities To Come
Year 7 students will be competing in the grand final of the Reading Champions Quiz on 6 March and Year 8 students will be hearing from, and working with the author and illustrator of Tsunami Girl, Julian Sedgwick and Chie Kutsuwada, on 11 March. More news on these events will follow.
Students have also been issued with a reading challenge to complete by the end of the academic year. Each student has been issued a bingo-style grid with 9 categories of book to be completed. Any student who completes the grid should share it with their English teacher and they will earn a reward.
All of these experiences aim to expose students to the world of books and we know that 85% of students at Heathfield do complete at least some reading for pleasure outside of lesson time.
How Can Parents Help?
On this World Book Day we encourage all students and families to embrace the motto of ‘If you’re into it, read into it’ and remember that in our busy lives, reading for just 20 minutes a day is enough to give you all the benefits that reading brings. Please see our website for more details on reading and suggestions of books for each age range: https://www.heathfieldcc.co.uk/?page_id=1354899
