For this World Book Day, Lower IV students Amelia, Ayra, Stephanie and I delivered an assembly to the lower school on how reading is linked to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The ideas from this assembly are from a presentation and workshop which, along with Mrs Botterill, the Junior School librarian, I gave to a group of school librarians last year. 

In our assembly we discussed the part that reading plays in developing our empathy and understanding, and how it also gives us characters and settings we can personally identify with. We also considered some of the ways we are addressing this in our private reading every day and also in the reading that we do across the school curriculum. 

A similar assembly was delivered to the upper school by the EDI group who shared their own experiences of how reading has shaped their personal development and their beliefs surrounding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

We hope these assemblies reinforce the message of how important it is to be part of a fully inclusive, diverse society where everyone is equal, and that students and staff were reminded of books which have had a lasting impact on them and influenced how they see themselves and others.