Staff and student volunteers led a series of storytime sessions in the Mead Gallery on Tuesday 14 October when the University hosted a Giant Storytime Event as part of the National Year of Reading.

75 children from local school, Charter Primary, spent the afternoon at the University, enjoying a storytime session in the Mead Gallery, led by staff volunteers from the Library & DARO and student volunteers from the MA in Drama and Education course.

At the same time, Warwick graduate and slam poet, the Dreadlock Alien, ran a slam poetry session in the National Grid room in the Arts Centre, which saw the children writing and performing short raps on the themes of books, reading and even their headteacher!

After a short juice and cake break, the day ended with a spooky final story in the Arts Centre cinema, told by Dr Joe Winston, Drama Tutor in the Institute of Education and Co-ordinator of the MA in Drama and Education course at Warwick.

Thanks go to the Arts Centre and Mead Gallery for the use of their spaces and their support in the lead-up to the day and on the day itself, to the Bookshop for kindly donating the books which were used at the event and then given to Charter for their library and to Joy Court, the Year of Reading Co-ordinator at Coventry Council. Thanks also go to the Dreadlock Alien and all of the staff and student volunteers who gave up their time to make the day such a huge success and to the staff and pupils at Charter Primary School.

For further details on the Year of Reading, visit the website at http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/