World Book Day with Cressida Cowell

Wolverhampton Grammar School organised a large scale event to celebrate World Book Day 2023 with 20 local schools. A morning event was held at Grand Station in Wolverhampton for over 750 pupils and this was followed by a virtual event in the afternoon hosted at School. Many of the schools involved would not have access to such a renowned author and this partnership provided a fantastic opportunity for children across the West Midlands to take part.

Aims

This partnership was aimed to celebrate a love of reading amongst children of school age on the occasion of World Book Day 2023.

A need was identified amongst local schools who did not have the resources to host an author in their own school.

The event benefited over 750 children across Wolverhampton.

Background

The event forms part of the School's 'Meet the Author' initiative. It follows in the footsteps of a very successful event with former Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson and her illustrator, Lydia Monks, in Spring 2022 which involved 800 children from more than 40 local schools.

Resources

The project used School facilities as well as the facilities of Grand Station. The venue hire charge was covered by Wolverhampton Grammar School and funding was received from the Merchant Taylors' Foundation to fund a book for every school child.