Schoolchildren celebrated International Women’s Day with a special literary twist.

Lancing Prep Hove stayed open in the snow, much to the pupils’ delight, as they created snow art and played with snowballs outside on the school field but one disappointment was that the school decided to postpone celebrating World Book Day for a week, as dressing up costumes would not have been the warmest or most appropriate attire for pupils.

But one week later, the school combined International Women’s Day and World Book Day with a themed celebration – children and staff were challenged to dress up, either as a female fictional character or as a character in a book written by a female author.

The Pre-Prep was awash with Beatrix Potter characters – a veritable warren of rabbits and some very smartly attired foxes were joined by delightful ducks, cute kittens and perky pigs. They carried on with their lessons as usual but had some creative time to work together in groups to make scarecrows for Mr McGregor’s garden.

Along with traditional favourites from the world of Harry Potter, the Prep school children certainly put their minds to coming up with some unusual choices.

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai made an appearance, as did Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, along with a raft of Roald Dahl characters.

There were several boys in dresses, including of course, David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress, and Gangsta Granny.

Headmistress, Kirsty Keep, said: “Both boys and girls had an opportunity to reflect on the positive influence of female authors and fictional characters, and had great fun along the way.”