The National Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury Publishing have teamed up to celebrate the 25 years of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, inviting two schools in Swindon to be part of the magic.
To mark the anniversary, 25 schools from across the National Literacy Trust’s local area campaigns, including Swindon Stories, have been taking part in Miles of Magic: The Harry Potter Book Relay.
In February, a special copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone set off to travel from school to school, including two Swindon schools, with pupils adding their own additions to the book before passing it on.
Books arrived at Mountford Manor Primary School, before heading to Goddard Park Primary School with pupils getting the chance to contribute to this well-loved story.
They are among 25 schools which have been gifted a Harry Potter trunk of goodies to inspire pupils to celebrate the books and support their reading. Each trunk contains a class set of free Harry Potter books, a school resource from Warner Bros (the production company behind the Harry Potter films), a printed copy of the new Miles of Magic Reading Challenge, stickers, merchandise and more.
Leanne Rogers, teacher at Goddard Park, said: “We have had huge excitement over the arrival of the Harry Potter trunk. Children’s faces lit up when we opened it.
“We are always trying to raise the profile of reading at school and are really pushing this year to try to get 100% of our children loving reading and choosing to read. This experience has really helped raise the profile for us and the free books have given some of our children something truly magical to take home.”
The National Literacy Trust and Bloomsbury Publishing launched their Miles of Magic activity to schools across the UK on Harry Potter Book Night which took place on 3 February.
More than 26,000 children have taken part in an exclusive event with Jonny Duddle, the illustrator of the Harry Potter 2014 book covers and this year’s silver anniversary edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Schools who were unable to join live can watch the recorded event online at youtube.com/watch?v=CPjox_pDNZc.
Jonny Duddle also launched the Miles of Magic Reading Challenge, a free classroom resource to encourage reading for pleasure and develop reading stamina. The challenge is said to take pupils on an adventure from Privet Drive to Hogwarts hitting magical locations for every 30 minutes they read. It is available for all schools and can be downloaded on the National Literacy Trust website at literacytrust.org.uk/harry-potter-challenge.
Anish Harrison, Hub Manager of Swindon Stories, at the National Literacy Trust, said: “We are so excited to be teaming up with Bloomsbury on this project to celebrate 25 years of Harry Potter! The books have inspired so many children – and indeed parents – in Swindon and across the UK to find a love of reading which is so vital to supporting literacy development.
“With Mountford Manor and Goddard Park taking part in the Book Relay and all Swindon schools encouraged to join the Jonny Duddle event and run their own Miles of Magic Reading Challenge, we hope many more children in the town will be charmed by the magic of reading.”
Beatrice Cross, Head of Publicity at Bloomsbury Children's Books, said: "For 25 years, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has cast a spell on generations of children, thrilling passionate readers and encouraging reluctant readers to discover the joy of reading. We are thrilled to be working with the National Literacy Trust to continue Harry’s legacy and help the children of today begin their magical reading adventure, unlocking their potential along the way.”
Links:
To download the classroom resources visit: literacytrust.org.uk/harry-potter-challenge
To view ‘Illustrating Harry Potter with Jonny Duddle’ visit: youtube.com/watch?v=CPjox_pDNZc
Social Media Information:
#HPMilesOfMagic
National Literacy Trust: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
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