Piglet, Hairy Maclary and The Gruffalo all became edible treats on Tuesday at Church High School, as Year 7 pupils participated in a ‘Bake a Book’ competition for World Book Day on Thursday 7^th March.

Olivia Dungait 12, overall winner

The girls were asked to bake a cake based on their favourite book for the competition, and the standard was incredibly high. The event was supported by Seven Stories, the national centre for children’s books. Beth Coverdale, Seven Stories’ Learning and Participation Coordinator, was one of the three judges.

She told JesmondLocal that “Seven Stories just feel really honoured to be invited along. We’re especially keen to highlight the enjoyment that can be found from books and reading.”

Coverdale continued: “The diversity of the ideas and the dedication the children have shown is fantastic. All my colleagues were really envious of me coming along this morning!” Coverdale admitted judging the cakes had been fun but really, really difficult.

Olivia Dungait, 12, was announced as the winner for her jungle-themed cake, inspired by the book ‘Running Wild’ by Michael Morpurgo.

She told JesmondLocal she had chosen this book because “I thought it was a really good story, and I think it has a message at the heart of it that we should look after animals.” Dungait revealed that it had taken her all of Saturday to make the cake.

11-year-old Ellie Whitworth was runner up with her cake based on ‘Ink Death’ by Cornelia Funke. The winning four girls were awarded family passes to Seven Stories.

The winners and their cakes

Kay Thew, Head of Year Seven at Church High School, who coordinated the World Book Day celebrations, told JesmondLocal that “World Book Day offers a fantastic way of generating enthusiasm for reading and nurturing a love of books,” shown by the girls’ entries to the competition.

After the judging the girls were able to sell their cakes as part of a bake sale raising money for the Newcastle based children’s charity Children North East. The charity works to improve the lives of children living in poverty in the North East. After studying ‘Goodnight Mr. Tom’ in English lessons, the pupils of Church High chose to donate their money to the charity for their contribution to the community.

The donation was warmly welcomed by Carol Taylor from Children North East, who also helped to judge the competition. She said, “We are touched that the girls decided to raise funds for our charity with their cake sale. Every penny raised will go towards improving the quality of life of disadvantaged children in the region.”

Church High was not the only school celebrating World Book Day. The annual event inspired contributions from all the schools in Jesmond. At West Jesmond Primary school World Book Day was celebrated as the older children read books to the younger children.

Year 7 and 8 pupils at RGS had a sponsored readathon, with proceeds also going to Children North East. What’s more, Marcus Sedgwick, a popular author amongst Year 8 and 9 pupils, visited the school on Wednesday 6^th March.

You can view more of the cakes baked by Church High pupils at http://magicmadgers.tumblr.com