Private School News

Roald Dahl Day at the Marist

Oompa Loompers, Willy Wonka and creative writing make the day a resounding success!

The Marist Senior School Year 7 and Year 8 students celebrated Roald Dahl Day this week by writing their own books to celebrate the famous author’s life, dressing up as their favourite Roald Dahl characters, and writing ‘revolting’ rhymes.

Students put a lot of thought into the books they had written about one of Britain’s best loved authors. The girls were encouraged to carry out their own research into Roald Dahl during the summer break and to work in groups to produce an illustrated biography. Beautiful pictures and poems were written and even secret recipes for Wonka chocolate! Teachers and students voted for the best written books which were all available to read in the school library. After all the votes were counted, the top prize went to Fiona Fullilove, Kelly Jones, Lucy Hannam and Katy Hurt for their beautifully illustrated and constructed work.

To share Roald Dahl’s sense of fun and mischief, many girls dressed in yellow (Dahl’s favourite colour), wore clothes and shoes back to front, and participated in the Roald Dahl character costume competition. The winners of the competition were:

1st Place: Olivia Bertram, Georgia Bennett and Amy Shortis who dressed as a Wonka Chocolate Bar

2nd Place: Bethany Broughton as Willie Wonka

Joint 3rd Place : Anna Southgate and Victoria Chessun–Lawrence who dressed as an Oompa Loompa and Matilda respectively.

All competition winners received a Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar provided by Mr Todd Stitzer, Chief Executive of Cadbury PLC.

In addition to the book and costume competition, over lunch students could visit the school library to get involved in a Roald Dahl quiz and the ‘Revolting Rhyme Competition’ in addition to many other activities.

The Roald Dahl day was a UK wide initiative and the Marist event was organised by the school librarian, Mrs Liliana Barnard. Mrs Barnard said “the girls have really enjoyed getting to know more about Roald Dahl, his life, and his books through their involvement in the day. They have produced some very creative and inventive pieces of work and have had enormous fun doing so. Roald Dahl day has been such a success with involvement from the teachers and younger pupils, we hope to make it an annual event to encourage more students to enjoy reading and get involved in literary activities.”

PHOTO: Olivia Bertram, Georgia Bennett and Amy Shortis (‘Wonka Chocolate Bar’), Bethany Broughton (Willie Wonka), Anna Southgate (Oompa Loompa) and Victoria Chessun–Lawrence (Matilda).