PUPILS and teachers all over the country will have their noses buried in books this week, as World Book Day arrives in their schools.

The charity event, which is being held tomorrow, is in its ninth year. It aims to promote books and reading for personal enjoyment among people of all ages, and taking part in the event could also benefit children's learning abilities.

According to family support organisation Parents as Teachers, reading with or to a child increases their writing skills as well as their reading ability.

World Book Day is a world-wide celebration of books and reading. It is marked in more than 30 countries across the world.

The origins of the event came from Catalonia in Spain 80 years ago, where books were given as gifts on April 23.

The day is celebrated in early March in the UK to ensure it happens during term-time.

At the beginning of every year, World Book Day organisers send out information packs about the day to schools across the country, giving ideas on how to celebrate the day and display materials for schools to put up in their classrooms.

One school taking part in World Book Day is West Lodge primary School in Station Road, Sidcup.

They are holding a sponsored readathon across the school, which will involve reading and being read to, as well as other literacy-based activities such as writing stories.

The readathon will raise money for The Roald Dahl Foundation, which offers assistance to sick children by giving grants to hospitals and families in the UK.

The school will also welcome a representative from the foundation to talk about the charity alongside the importance of reading.

Alison Cordingley, literacy coordinator at West Lodge, said: "We have just opened a new library so World Book Day is a great way to teach the pupils how to use it.

"The children always enjoy anything which is a change from lesson time so they're really looking forward to the readathon plus it will obviously get them all reading and interacting with each other about the books they have read.

"This makes the event all the more worthwhile as reading will hopefully become a new leisure activity for them."

West Lodge celebrates World Book Day every year. Last year, the school spent a day in fancy dress.

Pupils and teachers came to school dressed as their favourite character from a book.

Ms Cordingley continued: "We were going to do the same this year but we are all coming in dressed in Tudor costume next week as we are learning about the era in class at the moment and we didn't want to give the parents too many costumes to make."

It is not only school children who can get involved in World Book Day the charity also publishes a series of books called Quick Reads, written by people in the UK who want to get back into reading regularly.

For more information, visit the website worldbookday.com