THE English department at Alva Academy celebrated Scottish Book Week by asking all faculties to promote literacy through various activities throughout the week.

And each class responded to this request with some fantastic initiatives on show.

The English teachers themselves dressed up as the characters from the Wizard of Oz with the head of the department, Ms Douglas, graciously taking on the role of the Wicked Witch.

Ms Douglas hailed the day a success and told the Advertiser: "On Friday the majority of the faculties dressed up as famous characters from literature.

"We had Snow White with her seven dwarves and the Evil Queen, Dr. Suess' Cats in Hats, pirates from Treasure Island and a wonderful walking Hungry Caterpillar and this only covers half the faculties and their fantastic ideas.

"The staff put a huge amount of effort and thought into their costumes and attended a coffee morning hosted by the English faculty where they all got to see their wonderful creations and enjoyed seeing the senior English classes who had all dressed as characters from their studied texts.

"Pupils thoroughly enjoyed their chance to not only dress up but to share their knowledge of their texts with staff from around the school.

"There were characters from The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Handmaid's Tale, Atonement, Jekyll and Hyde and An Inspector Calls.

In addition, the advanced higher English class dressed up as characters from Dracula and various characters from their dissertations.

Some of the initiatives used by other faculties in the school included the business department hosting a spelling bee using key terms from their course.

Business also played Countdown Conundrum using key words.

The modern languages department had two of their years, S1 and S2, sing a song in their foreign language as well as a game of Countdown where kids were given a word and had to try and get as many foreign and English words from it.

Ms Douglas continued: "The day itself was hugely enjoyable for both staff and pupils and it is hoped that based on the success of this year's event we can expand next year's fancy dress to junior classes too.

"Staff prize winners were the fantastic Hungry Caterpillar made by the BEEL Faculty and Snow White by the Science Faculty with the winning senior class being awarded to The Crucible."