World Book Day 2026 Celebrations

The Mortimer Federation of St. John’s and St. Mary’s had a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day 2026 on Friday 6th March, after the school was closed on Thursday due to a temporary water issue.

The day was filled with excitement, creativity and a shared love of books across both schools. Children and staff took part in a brilliant potato character competition, transforming potatoes into their favourite book characters. The effort was truly fantastic, with everyone joining in the fun!

From Dog Man to Harry Potter, from a mischievous Niffler to the ever-elusive Where’s Wally, the entries were incredibly creative and imaginative. It was wonderful to see such an array of book characters, so many unique designs, with families offering great support at home to help bring the characters to life.

Throughout the day, classes enjoyed a range of book-inspired activities, celebrating stories and encouraging a love of reading. Some classes were also lucky enough to welcome mystery readers, who visited to share a story. These special reading moments will continue throughout the month of March.

We also held assemblies at both schools to celebrate the joy of books and the importance of reading together as a community.

A huge thank you to our staff, pupils and families for making this year’s celebration such a creative, imaginative and memorable event!

Ephraim – Year 2: I enjoyed the activities and I really liked being able to swap my old book and get a new one. I read lots of books at home so it was nice to get a different one.

Jack – Year 2: I really enjoyed making the book marks and I was so happy to win the class prize for our decorated potatoes.

Benji – Year 3:- I loved bringing in my potato character – I made Tom Gates with my Mum and thought it was really good. I loved the different activities we did during the day too.

Harriet – Year 4:- I really enjoyed World Book Day. We did lots of fun activities including Guess Who. I loved the worship, it was really fun having a gameshow and seeing how expert the adults were about their love of books!

Milan – Year 5: I found it fun as it was different! It was exciting. The best part was the pop up art work linked to our book characters!

Theo – Year 6: It was really fun and even though it was different I feel like everyone had fun! The potatoes were so unique too – mine was Wilf from Beano and it came out better than I thought it would!

Mr Hannawin: Today has been such a success! My children loved sharing their potato creations and have had a lovely day completing the exciting activities enthusiastically! Worship was great fun – not only did the children have a blast but I did too. Our love for reading is infectious across the Federation.

Mrs Mullins, Miss Showering and Mrs Sidwell: The day was fantastic, very different and all the children enjoyed it as a result. It sparked creativity and that was wonderful to see!

Mrs Pounder: Today has been such a great day! The Foundation Stage children went around the whole school looking at the different potatoes. They were all of such a high standard!