Town Close Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

Town Close celebrated the Jubilee with a host of activities and challenges to commemorate Her Majesty, the Queen’s 70 year reign. With the entire community adorned in red, white and blue, the day began with a fascinating whole School assembly about the Queen’s life led by Mr Kendrick with the School orchestra providing the rousing accompaniment to ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’ and the National Anthem. In Prep, the children designed their own Platinum Jubilee commemorative stamps before working in their tutor groups on Commonwealth display boards – with each tutor group tasked with researching and presenting a different country in the Commonwealth. Imogen, our Head of our School Council, also posted a letter to Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of the School thanking her for her service and dedication.

Meanwhile, in Pre Prep, our children worked in their bird families to design & build a carriage fit for Her Majesty the Queen. I’m sure the Queen would be delighted to travel in any, or indeed all, of the designs the children came up with! Pre Prep were also delighted to welcome Lady Dannatt, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk to officially open our pollinator hedge in the outdoor classroom. She, also, presented all of the Pre Prep children with a special edition Royal Mint fifty pence coin to mark their achievement of becoming Young Foresters as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative. Over the course of the week, parents thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Pre Prep Platinum Jubilee Art Exhibition with funds raised from the sale of art work to be donated to our School charity, The Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital.

The undisputed highlight of the day was the whole School Platinum Jubilee lunch on the lawn with every child from Nursery to Year 8 and every member of staff sharing a delicious picnic lunch together. Huge thanks were extended to our Catering Team and Grounds Staff for the monumental effort in preparing this for everyone. For dessert, we all enjoyed a slice of the winning Platinum Pudding Competition entries with the joint winners’ (Eddie (Year 2) and brother and sister team Gabriel (Year 2) and Claudia (Year 4)) puddings reproduced by our fabulous catering team for all to sample! Three other entries were highly commended & received a ‘Town Close Handshake’: Theo & Florence (Yr 2 & Yr 5); Ethan (Yr 5); & Matilda (Yr 4). Whilst all other entries received an engraved ‘Star Baker’ wooden spoon!

Maypole dancing completed the day’s activities, marking the end of an incredibly special day celebrating our Queen and our community.