The day began with the arrival of teachers dressed as their favourite literary characters. Pupils were then split into teams and tasked with finding out who each teacher was – World Book Day Bingo! A great effort from Bethany teachers meant that there were a wide range of different characters – from Mrs Hill as the jilted Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, to Miss King as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series, to Mr Reilly as Reepicheep the Mouse from C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Headmaster, Mr Healy, also joined in with the theme of the day by appearing as Roald Dahl’s character Willy Wonka, complete with top hat and cane!

Also running throughout the day was the ‘Bethany School Murder Mystery’ which told the story of Head of Year 9, Mrs Wareham, and her untimely demise via a pocket sized Bazooka ABC123 rocket. Pupils used their inference and deduction skills to track the clues revealed in the story and deduce the identity of the murderer. The ‘murderer’ was then revealed as the darstedly Head of Key Stage Four and Director of Performing Arts, Mr Bolton, in a short video shown during Period 7. “I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t’a been for you meddling kids!”

There were lots of other events around the school including the English department presenting a World Book Day livestream detailing how books are a ‘portal into life today’ and the Bethany Library hosting a World Book Day Bonanza Quiz.

Before the end of the day pupils were given a £1 World Book Day book voucher to go towards purchasing their next book.

A huge thank you goes to Mr Beckham for organising the day, including writing the Bethany Murder Mystery himself, as well as all teachers who dressed up as their favourite character. Most importantly, thank you to the Bethany School pupils for being focused and engaged throughout the entire day.