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World Book Day is about far more than dressing up at Roydon Primary Academy.

The school devotes an entire week to the national themed event each year to inspire pupils to develop their love of reading and books.

This year, pupils took part in a whole host of events throughout the week focusing on the text Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, starting with a dance workshop with West End in Schools.

The session, called Bringing Books to Life, saw pupils taught the story through dance.

Author Jennifer Killick, writer of the Alex Sparrow series of books, spent a day at the school working with all pupils to get them to use their imaginations to come up with superhero characters.

She said: “The main message is to keep reading, writing and building imagination, but also that being an author takes hard work and it is important to have determination and not give up when you face obstacles. If you want to do something, keep doing it as you will get there.

“I am trying to inspire a love of writing rather than writing because you have to get something right. I want them to get their ideas on paper, regardless of whether it’s right or wrong. I want them to be excited to write stories and read more books.

“They have been really lovely, asking good questions and creating some original characters. I can already see them firing up to write their stories.”

The author behind children’s favourite How To Train Your Dragon also selected the school to be a part of a live lesson via Skype in the classroom.

Year 4 pupils got to learn from writer Cressida Cowell about being creative in their writing and how to produce imaginative characters.

Matt Girvan, class teacher, said: “Year 4 were so lucky to join thousands of classes around the world to have this unforgettable experience.

“We have been reading How To Train Your Dragon in class, so this was an amazing treat for Year 4 as part of our annual Book Week. The children got to see Cressida in action and hear a number of amazing tips for writing stories and creating memorable characters.”

Laura Spring, deputy headteacher, said of Book Week: “We do so much to promote reading throughout the year that it is nice to do a bigger celebration of it around World Book Day to really show the children it is important and we, as a school and staff, place importance on reading and writing for pleasure, in particular.

“There are always people discussing books and reading around the school. We do make them read and there are things they have to do, but it is about reminding them that reading can also be fun.

“It was a really positive week with a big buzz around reading. We work hard at it, but it is nice to celebrate properly in this way.”

Teachers also visited different classrooms to share their favourite books, parents read with children in class, pupils entered the story box challenge where they had to depict a story in a shoe box, older pupils read with younger peers, the whole school took part in a dress-up day based on the theme and carried books around all day to Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) when they heard the bell.