World Book Day – 7 March 2025
Sharing book recommendations with our partner school in Spain
This year, we marked World Book Day with a great range of costumes and a lot of fun in school! In the Languages Department, following on from our letter exchange last year with the school in Nice, France, we decided to share our book recommendations with our new friends in this year’s partner school in Spain. In Key Stage 3, our pupils created bookmarks about their reading habits and gave book recommendations for their Spanish counterparts. These ranged from Sherlock Holmes to Bridget Jones, with a wide range of literature in between! It was a great way to share British culture with our new Spanish friends.
The RGS Dodderhill pupils drafted their letters in Spanish, focusing on giving their justified opinions about the novels they had chosen. Some were also able to describe their favourite characters in Spanish.
In Language lessons, Year 9 also tackled a bilingual story this year, reading in Spanish about ‘Los mellizos del tiempo’ – the time twins. Although it was a short story, it was quite challenging to work out at times, and we had to show resilience to understand the plot fully! This is another of RGS Dodderhill’s learning characteristics.
We sent our bookmarks to the school in Spain and waited eagerly to hear their responses. It was great to receive letters and cards a few weeks later in English, agreeing with some of our choices and making recommendations for us, too. The pupils were interested in taking up the Spanish recommendations too and requested some new books for our school library. Some pupils confessed to preferring watching films or TV over reading. It was lovely to see the communication flowing between the pupils in the partner schools!
Both schools used their knowledge of foreign languages to cross the communication gap in a meaningful way. It became clear that some literature transcends cultural boundaries, like Harry Potter, but others showcase the cultures of individual societies.
The activity broadened all the pupils’ horizons through sharing stories and literature – they carry much culture and information with them, which can be understood enjoyably. The activity supported social communication and promoted literacy in each school.
