Children up and down the UK dressed up as their favourite fictional characters and dug out their best-loved books to take to school for World Book Day last Thursday.
As part of Tranmere Rovers in the Community’s weekly school engagement visits, first team players Jake Caprice and Luke McCullough went to Portland Primary in Birkenhead for a special literary-themed question and answer session with pupils.
Every year World Book Day is acknowledged in schools as a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading in general. It is the biggest celebration of its kind and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.
The excited pupils at Portland Primary dug out their most-loved books to take to school for World Book Day and throughout the afternoon were treated to a variety of themed activities by their teachers. Outfits varied from Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings as well as a whole host of different Jacqueline Wilson characters!
Led by Tranmere Rovers in the Community’s Steve Williams, Caprice and McCullough sat down on some very comfortable looking beanbags and enjoyed a chat about football, reading and school in general.
From Q&A sessions, taking part in a PE lessons or delivering a talk - these visits are designed to inspire the pupils into staying attentive in school, promoting equality and diversity and motivating children to reach their goals.
Some of the children at Portland Primary benefit from our #SWA2 initiative, where we distribute tickets to our home games for over 35 charities and community groups on the Wirral, and were excited to meet the first team players.
Both players answered a number of enthusiastic questions on their footballing careers and personal lives, along with describing to the pupils how they got into football professionally and why they moved to play at Tranmere.
When quizzed on what books they had read lately, Jake Caprice gave away ‘The Secret’ in describing how he uses the infamous self-help guide by Rhonda Byrne to improve his playing and keep himself motivated throughout the season.
Luke McCullough started off describing his love for the Game of Thrones novels to the class before realizing they might be a bit X-rated for Year 5 and 6’s! Best sticking to Harry Potter for now.
Mr. Hayward, former TRFC employee and Year 6 tutor, said: “It was great to have two special visitors to our school for World Book Day, they were very nice and answered all of our pupils' questions patiently!
“The children enjoyed getting to know them both as quite a few of our children hope to play football for a long time to come and the players did a great job in emphasizing the importance of education over everything else. Thank you boys!”
We would like to thank Portland Primary School for their ongoing relationship with Tranmere Rovers in the Community and look forward to visiting them again with more players in the future.
To see more pictures and videos from the day, make sure to follow our social media channels by searching for Tranmere Rovers in the Community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For more information on all of our programmes and sessions, contact our community office on 0151 608 2354 or email community@tranmererovers.co.uk.