BOOK Week ended on Friday last week with school-wide book parades at St Mary’s, Swan Hill and Swan Hill North Primary Schools.
St Mary’s Primary School principal Kate Quin said both students and teachers had fun with the costumes every year.
“Teacher’s from each year level have a specific theme or book that they are dressing up as,” Ms Quin said.
“The teachers really embrace the whole week and the parade and they set the standards for students when it comes to dressing up.”
Ms Quin said students had spent the year reading books shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia 2024 Book Of The Year Awards.
“Once the shortlist comes out, we purchase all those books and the children do read many of them with their teachers, or in the library,” she said.
“So then by the time we get into Book Week, they’ve got quite a sense of excitement and anticipation around the actual winners.”
Ms Quin said Book Week and the book parade helped to instill a love of reading within the students.
“It certainly encourages children to read new authors and to read books that are outside their normal genre,” she said.
“The children love the book parade, and they get very excited about the whole opportunity to dress up in costumes.
“But the bigger picture behind it is that it does instill a love of reading and helps them explore the beauty of literature.”
For Swan Hill Primary School, the parade was the culmination of Book Week celebrations, which included quizzes on books, sharing favourite books among peers, and colouring and poster-designing competitions.
“The final part of our week was the children and staff dressed up as their favourite book or magical character and paraded through the school with the support of parents,” Swan Hill Primary School teacher Mandy Molloy said.
