The Power of Words
As students and teachers part of the busy Sha Tin College community, we often forget about the importance of sitting back and reading a good book. Book Week is an annual celebration designed to combat this and reignite our love of reading, with this year’s theme being ‘The Power of Words.’ From February 27 to March 3, students took part in a variety of engaging and exciting activities revolving around this theme.
To kickstart the week, the school’s Battle of the Books (BOB) team held the first inter-house BOB competition in both Chinese and English. Team members gathered in the library and were divided into 2 teams. After 3 gruelling rounds of competition, in which competitors were quizzed on how well they understood a selected list of books, Team 2 took the title for the English BOB competition while Team 1 was crowned champions for the Chinese competition.
Photo: Rachel Sung 11X1
On Thursday, the Year 8s and 10s had the privilege of being visited by Valerie Bloom, a popular Jamaican poet and novelist who was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2008. Not only did she give students an hour of fun, she also gave them a new perspective on poetry and an insight into spoken word poetry.
Like all previous years, the annual book character dress up day was the highlight of Book Week. Students and teachers alike dressed up as their favourite book characters, expressing the immense creativity our school fosters. Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), which took place on the same day, had all students and teachers literally stop what they were doing to pick up a book and read for a brief 15-minute period. This event was well-received and embraced with enthusiasm.
Photo: Ms Tandy
To finish off the week, a group of around 20 students took part in the Slam Poetry finals. Students had the opportunity to write their own raps, poems, and anecdotes to perform in front of a panel of judges.
“I really enjoyed this week,” commented Jessica Eden, 12P2, “even though I wasn’t part of the competitions, it allowed me to rediscover the joy of reading!”
Many ongoing events also took place throughout the week. Apart from the traditional bookmark-designing contest, one new addition that allowed students to make a contribution towards a charitable cause whilst enjoying books without prejudice was the blind book sale. Organised by STC’s Oculus group, a student-led, non-profit organisation, the sale aimed to raise awareness about visual impairment across the globe and ensure people do not miss out on good stories because of imperfect cover art. “We thought it tied in perfectly with the message that we tried to convey: not to take our gift of sight for granted”, said Andrian Chan, Oculus group member, “We wanted to inspire the reading community of the school and encourage students and teachers to take a chance with a book on a blind date.”
Book Week was, without a doubt, a fruitful time spent sharing the love of reading and spreading the power of words throughout the STC community. We can’t wait to see what next year has in store for us.
Kathy Zhou 12P2, Isabella Young 10D1, Martha Chow 11X1
