The inaugural Eastbrook ‘Reading’ Festival was a roaring success. In a bid to compensate for a lackluster World Book Day, Eastbrook Primary held a festival to celebrate all things reading.

To aid in our celebrations, two authors were invited to spend some time working with our children on some performance pieces.

Ann Bryant, who has many beautiful published works, came to work with our Reception and Years 1,2 & 4 classes. These children had the pleasure of experiencing some of Ann’s singalong stories which blended the arts of storytelling. performing and singing perfectly.

Kimba – a spoken word artist/poet/rapper – spent his time with Years 4, 5 & 6. Kimba helped the children to realise how powerful their words and their voices can be and they all wrote some amazing poetry as a result.

As well as the inspirational author sessions, the children had access to the spectacular Now Press Play interactive sessions and each class brought stories alive for their children.

To top all of these wonderful activities off, each child was given 2 free books courtesy of the Children’s Book Project – who were also the benefactors of our non-uniform donations to the tune of £75!

The day was rounded off perfectly with all of the children coming together – bubbles maintained – to share the work they had done during the day and having performances from our guest authors.

We are already looking forward to next year’s festival!

The wonderful authors enjoyed the day just as much as we did;

Kimba: “I was equally amazed at the experience of the day. The students & staff were amazing. The students were stirred and responded greatly. The memories of the day I will cherish and wish I could’ve taken some of the work away with me. I hope the students will keep their work for future inspiration. Thanks so much again for having us.”

Ann: “I just wanted to thank you for such incredibly kind words. I really felt touched to read how you felt about the visit. I meant to say on the day, I also loved working with your Year 4s even though it was such a short session…. You’ve got a little jewel of a school there and it’s teachers like you who make such places.”