Literary Festival
Every year, an exciting Literary Festival, celebrating the joy of reading, is organised by the library team. The Festival is a whole-day celebration for students in the Lower School and includes an exciting range of activities intended to introduce students to a wider variety of authors and genres and to help them develop a deeper interest in reading for pleasure. National and international authors are invited to speak and to lead workshops with the aim of inspiring our students and helping them to discover new ideas. Recent speakers have included: Martin Vopěnka (author), Štěpánka Jislová (comic illustrator), Jenny Valentine (author), Ash Dickinson (poet), Mara Menzies (storyteller), Seth Burkett (author), Karl Nova (poet), Kathryn Evans (author),Hana Ulmanová (translator), James Stafford (sports writer and journalist), Sonia Leong (manga artist), Marc Cram (actor) and Andy Darcy Theo (author).
World Poetry Day
Every year, we celebrate World Poetry Day on or around 21 March. This day was established by UNESCO in 1999 to celebrate “the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.” On the day itself, poetry readings and events are organised to encourage a love for poetry and an appreciation of its ability to express more profoundly the reality of the human condition. In recent years, the World Poetry Day celebrations have taken place as part of the Community Tuesday programme. Recent workshops have included ones led by students, a poetry critique and editing workshop, and a talk by poet and translator Václav ZJ Pinkava.
World Poetry Day 2026 also saw the launch of a second annual poetry competition in partnership with Akademeia High School in Warsaw, which we hope will continue.