WORLD Book Day was celebrated at Haslingden High School with the ‘Great British Book Off’ a book-themed cake decorating competition.
Students also took part in a sponsored readathon to raise money for Read for Good, a charity that makes sure children in hospitals have books and a sale of new and pre-loved books was held.
Students were encouraged to ‘drop everything and read’ across the curriculum throughout the day and to donate a book to the library.
Librarian and teacher Yasmine Choudry said: “It was an affirmation of the students’ commitment, love of books, of reading, writing and wanting to celebrate literature. It was a good day, both busy and lovely.”
Students were asked to depict their favourite book or script on a cake, or draw a representation if they were not able to bake.
Some students brought their cakes in on the school bus and one even dropped his twice, but it was still entered. All 38 students were rewarded with a special headteacher’s breakfast and chocolate and the winners got book tokens.
The results were outstanding and impressed Headteacher Russell Clarke.
He said: “The effort and thought that went into all the of the cakes was incredible. It was so exciting and it was a pleasure and a privilege to asked to judge them.
“The amount of work, time and effort that went into making them was so impressive.”
As a result, there was no overall winner – but Mr Clarke selected a winner from each year group.
Winning cake designers: Year 11 Beth Carter, Year 10 Millie Trickett, Year 9 Katie Knowles, Year 8 Suhani Khanwalkar, Year 7 Connie Stansfield.
Beth said: “My cake was inspired by Macbeth as we are studying it for GCSE English Literature and Drama.
“We watched a digital performance of Macbeth and saw two productions. One was a modernised version by the Royal Shakespeare Company which I preferred and found it more engaging.”
Her Victoria sponge cakes were decorated with white icing, she added red icing for blood and made a crown and dagger as props then wrote quotes from the play on the cake.
Beth said: “I used it as a mindfulness exercise. I enjoy baking and my dad used to be a chef and used to do a lot of baking so we have a lot of family recipes.
“I find baking replaces any negativity and helps me have a more positive attitude. It also gives me confidence as well.
“I volunteer to help to run the Year 7 drama clubs in school and I took my cake and shared it out with the other students.”