All things reading, spelling and creative writing were celebrated during an annual festival held at both King’s Ely schools.

The Reading Festival, which was held to mark World Book Day, saw King’s Ely Senior and Junior students take part in a week’s worth of literary events and activities.

This year, the festival started with a celebration evening to announce the winners of the King’s Ely Writing Competition.

Students in Years 5 to 10 took part and the winners from each year group read out their winning pieces to fellow pupils, teachers, staff and families.

Author Jane Wilson-Howarth attended the ceremony to talk about her life as a writer and congratulate the students on their efforts.

The Year 5 winner was Harriet Petherick, Year 6 winner was Lola Phillips and Cleo Olsson won the Year 7 category. Eleanor McGillivray won the Year 8 category, Year 9 winner was David Harris and Arthur Plews won the Year 10 category.

Other activities throughout the week included author visits, tutor group competitions, book swaps and pop-up book stalls.

“One of the highlights of the week was Drop Everything and Read, which was held on World Book Day itself, and saw students reading ‘Hacker’, a story written especially for King’s Ely by author and King’s Ely Junior parent, Mark Johnson,” said a school spokesman.

“A new chapter was revealed at the beginning of each lesson and pupils made predictions for the story as the day went on, with storytelling being incorporated into lessons across the curriculum.

“There was also a focus on spelling when King’s Ely hosted the International Spelling Bee. More than 60 keen spellers from Years 6 to 11 came together for the spelling bee with students from five other schools.

King’s Ely students won four of the nine prizes, including the joint first advanced prize. The winners were Arshdeep Hayer (advanced joint first prize), Johanna Kreuter (advanced third prize), John Lau (elementary second prize) and Kate Patlati (elementary).