Booklovers from Broughton Primary School celebrated the 20th anniversary of World Book Day by taking part in a group reading session at the Airbus plant.

The event was part of the Right to Read programme which pairs youngsters with Airbus ‘reading buddies.

A team of Broughton Airbus employees gave up their own time to take part in the fun-filled afternoon for 25 Key Stage Two pupils which supports improving reading standards among seven to 10-year-olds in the local community.

The young bookworms got the chance to read their favourite books in one-to-one reading sessions with Airbus volunteers and also got creative by designing their very own book tokens as part of a national World Book Day competition.

School council representative at Broughton Primary 10-year-old Ava Wilson said: “I think the day was really good. My favourite part was the reading and I enjoyed colouring in the book tokens too. The volunteers were really nice.”

Airbus volunteer Kristina Gillbanks helps one of the pupils with her reading

World Book Day is an annual worldwide celebration of reading and this year marks the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO event. In the UK, the aim is to encourage schoolchildren to embrace reading by giving them the opportunity to own a book of their own. Each year, 15 million Book Tokens are sent to schools across the country, which pupils can redeem at their local bookseller.

Foundation phase teacher at Broughton Primary, Pauline Jones, said: “The afternoon at Airbus was a fabulous event. The highlight was seeing the delight on the children’s faces as they read with the volunteers and their interest in World Book Day activities. We hope it is something that will happen again.”

Community relations manager at Airbus Broughton, Phil McGraa, added: “We were thrilled to invite Broughton Primary School to celebrate the 20th anniversary of World Book Day with our employees. It’s fantastic to see so many young people enthused about reading and wanting to share their favourite books and fictional characters with Airbus volunteers.”