Farrah Riaz, author of 'The Twirly Wiggly Dance' visited us on Tuesday. She read her charming, colourful picture book, we did a true & false quiz, then we did some twirly wiggly dances of our own! Thanks Farrah - we had a fantastic twirly wiggly time! 💃🕺🪩 Oxford Children's Books

Our first author spotlight video is up! Here is Kieran Larwood on the inspiration behind the thrilling 'Dungeon Runners' - shortlisted in our 7+ category. Reading for Pleasure 🧶 Nosy Crow youtu.be/wkiFhsXZkdU?fe…

A Friday bonus! Our second spotlight video features both the author and the illustrator - here are trygve Skaug & Ella Okstad on the inspiring 'If I Were Prime Minister' - shortlisted in our Picture fiction for Early Readers Category. Debbie Thomas youtu.be/_gkmzccPCSg?fe…

Our author spotlight video today features the brilliant Natasha Farrant talking about her thrilling adventure 'The Secret of Golden Island' - shortlisted in the 9+ Category. Faber Children's youtu.be/D-CJldmwdfw?fe…

We started our #worldbookday2025 celebrations early with a visit from Andy Jones yesterday. Year 3 & 4 got some creative writing tips from 'Unleash Your Creative Monster', then KS2 heard all about time travelling & zombies. Thanks for an inspiring visit Andy! 🤳🧟📚

Year 3 Beech Class had a fantastic time listening to Kieran Larwood talk about his Spark! School Book Awards shortlisted book 'Dungeon Runners' on Tuesday. And we even got to ask the author some questions. We can't wait to read Dungeon Runners Level 2!

Some of our Year 4 & 5 pupils had a brilliant time yesterday listening to Rachel Chivers Khoo✨📚 The Magician Next Door talk about her Spark! School Book Awards shortlisted book, 'The Magician Next Door'. (Appropriately, we went next door to TKA Library for the event.) Thanks Rachel for answering our questions! 🧙‍♂️🪄🏘️

Thanks to Claire Linney for a fascinating talk about Black Tudors, as featured in her time-travel adventure 'Time Tub Travellers and the Silk Thief', to enhance our Year 5 Tudor topic.

Book of the Week: 'Why Did My Brain Make Me Say It?' by Sarah Ziman/BardyMum - 'Brain' out now!. Brains are weird! But this poetry collection also demonstrates that brains are amazing in the way they can experiment with language. A playful, profound and authentic collection of poems - perfect for primary.

The Spark! reviews are coming in, in preparation for voting. Here's what our Year 2's had to say about 'Farah Loves Mangoes' by Sarthak Sinha - 'Fruit is not the only thing'. (Although there are plenty of mango fans in Year 2!) Spark! School Book Awards

Year 2 enjoyed the themes of facing your fears and being kind to animals in 'Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf' by Craig Barr-Green & Francis Martin! Spark! School Book Awards

Year 2 had a lot of fun imagining what each of them would do... ‘If I were Prime Minister’ by trygve Skaug & Ella Okstad, from 'I could do what I want' to 'I would make my house rainbow!' Spark! School Book Awards

‘Who Ate Steve?’ by Susannah Lloyd & Kate Hindley was particularly popular in Year 2 as it made us laugh a lot! Spark! School Book Awards

This week we're voting for the winner of the Spark! School Book Awards - here's what some of our Year 5 & 6 pupils had to say about the shortlisted books in the 9+ category... 'This story gave me emotions!'