Romsey Primary School got creative last week to bring Book Week to town despite Melbourne’s lockdown restrictions.
With the majority of the school’s pupils learning from home, Romsey Primary School was unable to put on its Book Week festivities, which usually includes a parade, a treasure hunt and book themed dress ups.
This year, school staff encouraged residents and business owners to display stuffed toys and books in street-facing windows, so that pupils and their parents could walk around town in their own time and enjoy themselves.
Principal Kimberley Nicholls said many community members had jumped at the opportunity to contribute to the idea.
“Book Week is huge for us, we usually start planning right from the start of the year. We just had some building works completed with a new multipurpose space which we were going to use, so it’s a bit of a downer,” Ms Nicholls said.
“We just thought this idea would be a nice way to bring some happiness to people and bring the community together.”
Ms Nicholls said as they walked around town, pupils could add stamps to a custom-made passport to highlight the journey.
The Romsey Library, Romsey Compounding Pharmacy and Soltan Pepper were among the shop fronts that displayed some old toys for the children.
“Reading is the base of everything, at Romsey Primary School we think it’s important to encourage the habit to our children,” Ms Nicholls said.
“It’s something that Romsey holds very dear to its heart.”
Oliver Lees
