Chiswick House School, in Kappara, has been officially  recognised as a world record holder by Guinness World Records.

The school now holds the world record for the largest ever gathering of people dressed as different storybook characters.

The attempt to break the previous record of 359 characters set by an English school was held on March 4.

However, on the same day, another English school in Surrey raised the record to 392.

Chiswick House School surpassed this number comfortably and, following verification of the evidence by Guinness World Records , the record is now set at 453 characters.

School principal Patrick Tabone said the aim of the event was not simply to break an existing record, but, more importantly, to excite the children about books and reading, as well as increase their appreciation of literature.

A range of characters were chosen from over 60 books from Maltese and English children's literature. Throughout the scholastic year, in preparation for this event, teachers worked hard to introduce new authors and books to the children at all levels.

Children were encouraged to read the books of the character they represented. For the purposes of the record, all characters were different and needed to have first appeared in books. The complete character list had to be pre-approved by Guinness World Records.

Three independent judges had the task of overseeing the whole event and reporting back to Guinness World Records for final approval.

They were former European Commissioner Joe Borg, executive director Allied Newspapers Adrian Hillman and executive director National Book Council Sergio Grech.

Breaking the world record was the highlight of Chiswick House School's intensive literacy programme for this scholastic year.

See also:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110304/local/once-upon-a-time-at-chiswick-house-school.353099

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