Karen Bradley: In this week's column on Nub News, the Moorlands MP has discussed her recent visits to local schools.

It is always a pleasure to visit our local schools and to celebrate World Book Day, I was pleased to join staff and pupils at Thursfield Primary School and also Happy Hours Nursery in Biddulph. At Thursfield I was given a tour of the school and then met the Reading council in the library. They explained how the council meets every 2 weeks and the children have to do a speech. They then get voted in to be on the council, with 2 representatives from each class. The members of the council help other children by recommending books and encouraging them to read. To celebrate World Book Day, the children dressed up as their favourite book character. They also held a 'pre-loved book sale' where children brought in books they had read and other children could buy those books with the proceeds going towards buying new books for the school. I was especially interested to hear how they held a sponsorship event to raise money. The whole school read books, that when laid out throughout the school, totalled 96 metres, the equivalent height of Big Ben. It was then off to Happy Hours Nursery where I was given a tour and met some of the older children. They told me how they dressed up as a character from their favourite book for World Book Day and brought the book in with them. It was also great to hear how they have a 'secret story teller' come in every week so as their 'secret story teller' for the week, I read them the story 'The Singing Mermaid'. Thank you to all involved and especially to Thursfield Primary for the fantastic Red Nose Day artwork for my office window. I really enjoyed the visits and thought that the children showed a real passion for reading.

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