SIBFORD PUPILS WIN £500 IN WORLD BOOK DAY COMPETITION

07 Mar 2016

Year 8 pupils at Sibford School near Banbury are getting set for a spending spree after winning £500 in the 2016 World Book Day Award competition.

Working on the theme ‘Where does your reading take you?’ the pupils created a special literary tree with branches pointing to the different places books lead them to.

And on Thursday 3rd March, World Book Day, they discovered that their entry had been highly commended … meaning they now have £500 to spend on books for the school library.

Twelve-year-old Charlotte Harries-Harris said: “We got our inspiration from Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree series where the tree takes people to different places.

“We came up with our favourite books and got places from them, for example Swindon from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Narnia from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We then made leaves out of pages from books and placed these on branches to represent the different places each book takes us.

“We decided to put the tree up in the Library to inspire others to read these books … and it’s working! We now plan to keep the tree growing so that it encourages more and more people to get into books.”

In awarding the prize money, World Book Day call on the expertise of local booksellers to help pupils make a selection that’s just right for their school.

Congratulating the Sibford students on their success, Kirsten Grant, Director at World Book Day, revealed that Polly Jaffé of Chipping Norton bookshop Jaffé & Neale has been selected to help them spend their prize money.

Sibford school librarian Frances King said: “We are delighted that our entry has been Highly Commended and we have won £500 for the Library. I look forward to taking some of the pupils along to Jaffé & Neale in the near future so that they can meet Polly and select their new books.”

Photo: World Book Day Winners – Jessica Main, Seamus Casey, Charlotte Harries-Harris, Grace Marot, Rebecca Shilling and Harvey Jones.