PIRATES, princesses and a Big Friendly Giant were among the characters at Cathedral School’s Book Week parade, which was held in the school hall yesterday.

Every student in the school – and the teachers – came dressed as their favourite fairytale character as part of the school’s Book Week tradition that dates back almost 30 years.

School librarian Louise Couper, who yesterday dressed up as a fairy, said planning for the event started 12 months ago.

“It’s a big job, ” she said yesterday, as she waved her wand around. 

“But everyone looks fantastic. The children and their parents do a marvellous job, they always amaze me.”

Mrs Couper said this year’s theme, ‘Connect to Reading’, was a bit difficult to translate into costumes so she picked her own theme of ‘fairytales’.

“A lot of kids miss out on hearing fairytales these days, so I thought that would be a good choice,”she said.

In the lead up to yesterday’s event, she said the students had been learning about fairytales.

“They have been really interested in how they’ve changed over the years. And they’ve also learnt a lot about the morals from fairytales, like don’t be greedy,”she said.

As part of yesterday’s Book Week activities the library hosted a book fair. The students also enjoyed a special treat for recess, hand delivered by Mrs Couper’s library monitors.

One of the students who thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s festivities was seven-year-old Brodie Nisbet, who came dressed as the Queen.

Brodie said she got her outfit off eBay and when the dress arrived on Tuesday, she said it was exactly what she wanted.

“I loved it as soon as I opened it,” Brodie said.