24.02.23

Windlesham House has been alive with literature this week; the entire school has celebrated reading and the written word. The aim of our first Literature Festival has been to foster a love of literature in our children.  We have been privileged to welcome six authors and poets to Windlesham. They shared their diverse experiences of writing, their inspiration and motivation in addition to the difficulties they have encountered on their journeys. The children were thrilled by the opportunity to engage with each author, clasping a personally signed copy of their book. Childhood memories of items found in poets’ beards, time travel and caravans of doom, will remain with the children forever!

Our children have been fortunate to engage with the wider school community and beyond through storytelling by a variety of staff, from the bursar to groundsmen; sharing books with children from other schools and enjoying bedtime stories by the fire in the front hall or online with teachers in onesies. The children have loved exchanging their books, receiving raffle tickets in return for avid reading and even our parents have enjoyed sharing books with wine and cheese in Highden.

What have we learnt from our Literature Festival? Not only the importance of community, but the chance to press pause on the cacophony of school life to mindfully read at the start of every day. Best of all, the children simply want more time to read: in school and at home.