Relieving Principal James Southam praised the children’s imagination and creativity in designing this year’s outfits and thanked those who attended the celebrations on Friday, August 23.
“This year, Lowesdale Parents and Citizens Association (P&C) played a significant role in celebrating Book Week with the commencement of a new playgroup and a fundraising campaign for new library books,” Mr Southam said.
Around 25 parents and children attended the playgroup, participating in Hide-A-Book, games, music, dancing, bubble blowing and reading books, including ‘Where is the Green Sheep’ by Mem Fox and ‘Penguin Problems’ by Jory John.
Playgroup attendees were then treated to delicious morning tea, followed by a Book Week parade and a book pledge fundraiser.
The school community pledged more than $320 of new books on the day which contributed to an overall P&C donation of more than $800 worth of books for the school library.
Earlier in 2024, Lowesdale P&C were approached by the school to contribute towards a revamp of school library books. Teacher Courtney Kuschert completed a review of Lowesdale’s library books noting that many books were old and yellowing with age.
Mrs Kuschert said Lowesdale’s library has been lucky enough to receive many book donations over the years from other small schools that have closed.
“It is fabulous to be able to bring our library collections up to date with relevant recommended curriculum books as well as these new books that the children have personally requested,” she said.
Lowesdale P&C Treasurer, Ailsa McDonald, said the P&C is delighted to donate new books to the school library.
“We understand how important books are for our kids learning - especially our rural kids in small schools who may be physically or financially isolated from public borrowing services,” Ms McDonald said.
“Riverina Regional Library used to park the travelling library bus outside our school to share the magic of reading with our rural community and surrounding areas, but this service is no longer running in our district,” she said.
Ms McDonald was excited that more than 30 books had been donated thanks to Lowesdale’s Book Week pledges.
She said the P&C is grateful to the community for so many new book contributions and that it’s lovely that parents and friends have included their handwritten dedications on the inside covers of the donated books.
Lowesdale P&C are continuing to fundraise and donate more books to the school library so if anyone would like to get involved and donate, they can do so via the Lowesdale P&C Facebook page.
