READING ROCKS!

A strange sight greeted visitors to Heath Mount on Thursday 6th March.  While Rapunzel and Gandalf played football, children in pyjamas and dressing gowns played violin and shared their favourite bedtime stories.

Howard Guard, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, came in full regalia to judge the Favourite Book Characters Fancy Dress competition.  Mr Guard, who held his investiture lunch at Heath Mount last April, was delighted to come back on World Book Day.  He presented the school with a set of the 7 Harry Potter novels, dedicated to the pupils and signed by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as well as the producer, directors and production designers of the Harry Potter films.

As founder of Howard Guard Productions, and with an international career spanning 30 years, the High Sheriff has a keen interest in film.  He hoped that Heath Mount students would be inspired by the example of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint who were aged 10, 9 and 12 respectively when they first played Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

Howard Guard's own interest in books and stories was first sparked when he was ill in bed with chicken pox as a ten-year old.  He said, "It was then that I discovered books like Day of the Triffids and The Craken Wakes.  From that moment, I started to carry the world around in my head - and it was a world woven from books".

A keen fan of The Wizard of Oz, who has even named his dogs after characters from the books by L. Frank Baum, Mr Guard was particularly delighted to award a fancy dress prize to Katie Brooke (Yr 4) who came dressed as the brainless scarecrow.  Mr Guard also clashed swords with another prize winner - William Wallace (Felix Tubb, Yr 3).

The children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up and World Book Day added to all the activities which take place throughout the year to foster a love of reading and imaginative story writing.