Celebrating World Book Day 2026

On Thursday 5 March, the whole school celebrated World Book Day. In some other countries World Book takes place on 23 April. Celebrations take place all over the world to recognise the magical power of books – ‘a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures’.  By championing books and copyright, UNESCO stands up for creativity, diversity and equal access to knowledge…’ This year’s theme was ‘Reading for Pleasure’.

At the Prep School, all the children and staff dressed up as a fictional book character and many brought in their favourite books. Both the children and the staff made a real effort, and all the costumes were astonishing. Mrs Rackham greeted the pupils as The White Witch from ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ and Ms Lightfoot joined her as the wardrobe with Honey as an adorable Aslan the Lion. Mr Wood was a very smart Sherlock Holmes and Ms Menegaz was a formidable Miss Trunchball… there were so many other wonderful creations, and the view at breaktime was a bright array of beautiful characters. The children all looked fantastic and we are very grateful to the support from the parents who helped with their costumes.

The day began with a special World Book Day assembly, where the children were firstly given unusual facts about books followed by a special ‘Beat The Teacher’ session where the children won by a good margin! They also played a game where they had to guess which book was which teacher’s favourite. Posters were also displayed around the school showing teachers with their favourite children’s book.

During the day the children enjoyed lots of book related activities and many of the staff read extracts from their favourite books to the children, during their lessons. Some pupils gave a presentation on their favourite book to the class while others created book reviews, enjoyed ‘hot seating’ book characters, making tally charts of genres read in Maths and so much more. We also participated in DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) and at 10:15 the whole school stopped what they were doing and read a book. It was amazing to witness everyone on site completely engrossed in a book for 15 minutes.

We also enjoyed a special World Book Day menu at lunchtime, served by the kitchen staff dressed up as ‘the midnight gang’ from David Walliams’s book.

Next week we will be visited by the best selling author, Sangu Mandanna, who will be doing a workshop with our younger pupils and signing copies of her new book, ‘Vanya and the Wild Hunt’.

To encourage the children’s reading even further, the children were all issued with Book Tokens worth £1:00. The intention of the day is to make the children more aware of books, authors and stories and to inspire the children to read more. This, combined with our Book Fair last term, and the author visit next week, makes me confident that we achieved this, resulting in a fun and exciting day. We cannot wait for next year!

World Book Day 2026 at Langley Senior School had such a lively, joyful feel to it. From the moment everyone arrived, the school was full of colour, imagination and that lovely sort of buzz that comes when people are genuinely excited about stories. Pupils and staff put so much effort into dressing as their favourite book characters, from The Traitors in the Science Department to fairytale favourites in the Sixth Form,  and it was a real pleasure seeing just how creative everyone had been. 

We started the day with our ChocoLit Book Swap, where pupils could trade books while enjoying a cup of hot chocolate. It was wonderful watching students recommend stories to one another, discover new genres and share their love of reading in such a relaxed, joyful way. There’s something special about seeing a book find its next reader! 

Over in the Library, things took a mysterious twist with our Whodunit Murder Mystery. Pupils became full fledged detectives as they spent the day working out who had murdered Mr Brownlie-Collyer in the Library. Following the clues, avoiding red-herrings and looking into the details of the case led pupils from Year 6 to Upper Sixth to uncover a murderous Head of Year in our midst. 

Pupils also had the chance to become Langley Book Sleuths, tracking down teachers linked to books and recording them in their tracking sheets. The enthusiasm, teamwork and detective skills on display were brilliant. 

At Langley, World Book Day is about so much more than dressing up. It’s about reminding pupils of the power of stories and reading. We understand that reading for pleasure is the biggest single factor in a child’s future academic success. World Book Day reminds us all that stories are powerful tools for understanding ourselves and others, building empathy, imagination and helping us all find our place in the world. 

Here’s to another year of reading for pleasure, curiosity and creativity.