THE magical world of reading was brought alive for children at a Calne school during book week when they went on the hunt for dragon eggs.

Pupils aged from four to 11 at St Margaret’s Preparatory School were entranced by the trail that was created by staff and led them on a tour to find the colourful and mysterious large eggs that each year group had to nurture until they hatched.

Writer and illustrator M P Robertson from Bradford on Avon, whose books aptly include The Egg and The Dragon Snatcher visited the school on Tuesday and added to the excitement.

He persuaded the children to believe he had a pet dragon that was outside school and to prove it showed a video featuring a teacher being chased by the dragon on the playing field.

Year 6 teacher Sarah Giles said: “Our Book Week this year was fabulous and really engaged the interest of the children.

“The theme of The Egg was embraced by all. The Gifted and Talented Writing group worked with the younger children to introduce the task and to inspire them, and this was brilliant with each child putting an individual slant on the theme.

“By the end of the week all the eggs had hatched and strangely the creatures all escaped.

“M P Robertson gave an assembly to the whole school on Tuesday and workshops for each different age group.

“Everyone up to and including Year 4 learnt how to draw a dragon and the results are fantastic. Year 5 and Year 6 discussed the process of working from a sketch book to a finished book.

“He showed us examples of his sketches and how they have transferred into a finished article.”

On Friday children dressed as book characters with the theme weird and wonderful creatures.