Pupils and staff across our 25 schools joined in the World Book Day fun this year.

There were competitions, reading breakfasts, visits from poets and mysteries to solve.

At Saint Mary’s in New Mills there was a staged break in at school where all the reading books were stolen!

Headteacher Patricia Chapman said: “A policeman arrived(Mr Peter- our wonderful reading volunteer) with his invisible dog and talked to the children. The children had to complete an investigation and identify the mystery clues spread around the external school buildings. They then undertook writing a newspaper report about their findings. They spotted the book thief, ‘Burglar Bill’ (Mr Peter)later in the day running around outside school. Finally, the clues revealed his where abouts in our new reading shed.”

This event at Saint Mary’s coincided with the opening of the school’s new wooden reading shed for all pupils to use during school breaks and the launch of their gold, silver and bronze reading award scheme.