PUPILS donned their favourite story book character costumes for an international fundraising day.

Youngsters at Richard de Clare School in Halstead spent lessons in fancy dress as part of World Book Day to raise money for their school library.

The theme of the day this year was hats. Pupils came as famous hat-wearing characters, such as The Cat in the Hat, famous hats, like the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, or even got creative by designing story board hats to wear on the day.

A spokesman for Richard de Clare said: “It was so lovely to see so many children dressed up as their favourite book characters and being so enthusiastic about their reading. Some children made their own hats, which were amazing.”

The school raised £125 for the school library.

Pupils also took part in the 200 Million Minutes reading challenge, joining children around the world.

Across the globe children were challenged to read a total of 200 million minutes to improve children’s reading skills globally.

Over two days, pupils at Richard de Clare had read for more than 16,000 minutes between them.