Fir Ends Primary School

In today's assembly, we talked about why we celebrate World Book Day and how fortunate children are to be able to easily access books and education in the UK. It was fantastic to note that every child in our school thinks there are at least ten books in their homes, and many think there might be hundreds, or more!

We then discussed the children whose lives and expectations have been turned upside down in another part of the world this week, in Ukraine. Children and families there have seen their lives change within a week, and have had to leave all their home comforts - and books - behind. 

The United Nations Charter on Children's Rights will offer some protections to these children, but the challenges they and their families will face in the coming weeks, months and perhaps even years cannot be understated.

Although we can do very little directly, organisations such as UNICEF will do their utmost to ensure the charter is used to offer children sanctuary, safety and education. We can support their work, at least. 

While we will still celebrate books on Thursday, we will also use it as an opportunity to think about those in the Ukraine who will be unable to join the celebration. 

Children have been asked to wear BLUE (Unicef) and or YELLOW (Ukraine) on World Book Day to remind us of this and to bring a donation which will be sent to UNICEF to support their work.