WITCHES, princesses, super heroes and even a duck brought Hastings’ second annual Book Day to life, Tuesday 29 August.
Shop fronts were decorated to represent favourite books and traders dressed as book characters.
Pre-school pupils and their teachers and parents also dressed as their favourite book characters.
The focus of the day was to demonstrate to youngsters the excitement and joy of reading as they made their way down High St listening to stories.
The book day was organised by the Hastings’ Linking School and Early Years (LSEY) partnership, now in its 11th year. The latest three-yearly Australian Early Development Census shows that the number of Hastings children vulnerable in the area of language and cognitive skills has decreased by 19.1 per cent, compared with a 0.2 per cent increase across the state.
The census measures the development of Australian students in key areas early in their first year of primary schooling.
“This amazing result has been brought about in large part by the whole town approach developed by Hastings’ LSEY partnership,” former principal at St Mary’s Primary School Richard Mucha said.
