A LITERARY feast kept pupils from Blackbird Academy Trust entertained as they met students from across Oxford to share their love of books.

About 600 pupils and staff gathered on Friday morning for a ‘Readathon’ of book shares, poetry reading and dancing in Blackbird Leys Park.

Year 10 students from Cherwell, St Edward’s and Magdalen College schools were paired with Year 4 and 5 pupils at Windale, Orchard Meadow and Pegasus primary schools.

Each older ‘mentor’ brought along a favourite book to present as a gift to their younger counterpart.

Partner Tia Mungai, nine, of Pegasus School, was paired with Kizzy Clark-Jones, 15, from St Edward’s, and received a copy of Phillip Pullman’s ‘The Firework Maker’s Daughter’.

She said: “Kizzy has been good. I give today a thumbs-up.

“My favourite book is ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ because it’s hilarious and there’s loads of things to find out.”

The scheme follows the Oxfordshire Reading Campaign, backed by the Oxford Mail, which has been helping kids across the city improve their reading skills since 2012. More than 1,200 primary school pupils took part over two years and 10 schools have signed up to take part in the latest phase of the literacy programme.

During the Readathon, Poet and Radio 4 regular AF Harrold gave a dramatic rendition of a poem specially written for the trust’s mascot black labrador, Winston.

Nine-year-old Orchard Meadow pupils Ben Singleton and Ebrima Chune read a poem they had written about Empress Matilda, who escaped from Oxford Castle in 1141.

Ben said: “I enjoyed reading out the poem. It was a bit scary. The thing I found the best was volunteering to do it. I thought everyone was going to laugh at me but they didn’t.”

Orchard Meadow Year 4 teacher Samantha Nelson said: “It has been really positive. The Magdalen College School boys were so well-briefed about what they needed to do. They had prepared a list of things they needed to ask the children; the organisation has really impressed me.”

Britt Strickland, a Year 10 English teacher at Cherwell, said: “We intended to get a range of readers that would benefit as many of the children, find a mutual enthusiasm and choose a book that they loved and was transformative for them. We feel that has been a success.”

The idea for the Readathon was first conceived by Blackbird Academy Trust executive director Jill Hudson and the chaplain at St Edward’s School.

Mrs Hudson said: “Reading is the key to everything in life. We have got brilliant and passionate readers in our schools and wanted to celebrate that.”

Despite recent disappointing Ofsted inspections at Orchard Meadow and Windale, Mrs Hudson noted the positive impact of events like the Readathon and said she would like to see both rise to Good status alongside Pegasus.