Colchester schools celebrate Queen's platinum jubilee

A bank holiday weekend will mark the Queen’s 70 years on the throne but youngsters have already been enjoying special activities as part of the occasion.

Oxford House School, in Lexden Road, Colchester, put on an afternoon tea party where children wore colours of the Union Jack and brought in home-made crowns.

Els Despriet, of Oxford House School, said: “Children wore crowns and there was a procession of the crowns as well.

“We had a cardboard cut-out of the Queen, and children dressed up in the Queen’s Guard outfits.” 

Mrs Despriet added there was an air of excitement in the run-up to the event.

“It is the end of the half-term, so it always feels a bit more jubilant at this time of year – it felt like a little celebration was due.”

At St James’ Church of England Primary School in Colchester, headteacher Belinda Fellows said children enjoyed a picnic on the school field, where traditional games were played before the school opened to parents for an afternoon fete.

She said: “Everyone was dressed in red, white, and blue and we made all of our bunting out of scrap paper.

“Our kitchen staff have done a brilliant job – they made a giant cake with the Queen’s head on it.

“The key for us was to reflect the times because the last thing we wanted was people not being able to take part because they are paying so much for fuel or food.”

At Old Heath Community Primary School in Colchester headteacher Amanda Mitchelson arranged for a whole school lunch party in the school playground with all the pupils and staff sitting in a street party style.

The whole school listened to the national anthem, and pupils themselves performed a rendition of Here’s to the Queen which paid tribute to her 70-year reign.

Ms Mitchelson said: “We put it in the diary quite a while ago, and we gradually said ‘Let’s do this, and let’s do that.’

“It all just snowballed.”

St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, in Lexden, dedicated the whole week to celebrating and learning about the jubilee, with each year group having been allocated a decade of Queen Elizabeth’s reign to learn about.

The week culminated with high tea on Friday, as well as a parade where a mock Queen Elizabeth greeted the children.

As part of the jubilee week, each year group will be showcased what has happened in each decade of Queen Elizabeth’s reign from the 1950s through to the 2010s.

Projects focussed on all kinds of aspects of British culture, such as music, fashion, and dance, as the beginning of the Queen’s reign is charted from the past to the modern day.