Schools celebrate popular author’s 100th birthday

Fantastic Mr Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and Danny, the Champion of the World were among the books children chose characters from for Roald Dahl Day.

Tuesday marked 100 years since the birth of the much-loved author and, to celebrate, schools in and around Bury St Edmunds invited pupils to dress up as their favourite character from his books.

In Bury, South Lee School and the newly-opened Sybil Andrews Academy hosted events to celebrate his centenary while Hartest Primary School also got involved.

Sarah Catchpole, headteacher at South Lee, said: “It was a fabulous day, enjoyed by all the children and staff.

“We had educational activities based around Roald Dahl and we raised money for Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity which supports specialist nurses to help families with severe illnesses.”

Karen Harman, interim headteacher at Hartest, said: “We had a fantastic day and we used Roald Dahl and his stories and poetry as an inspiration across the curriculum.”

Karen Cannard, Sybil Andrews librarian, said: “He is regarded as the world’s greatest storyteller and it was clear that many of the students loved his work.

“It was a great chance to get them engaged and to celebrate the language used, while they also found out what their Roald Dahl names would be.”