Jubilant Jubilee Celebrations

Ferne and Grace with the wall hanging, felt from Anglo Felt, Whitworth

4 More Image(s) In Gallery

July marks the end of Jubilee celebrations at St John with St Michael CE Primary School in Shawforth.

Local business, Anglo Felt Industries, based on Tong Lane, Whitworth, kindly provided school discounted felt square pieces in red, white and blue to make a Jubilee wall hanging to kick start the celebrations.

Each child was given a piece of locally produced felt and asked to decorate it with the theme of the Jubilee in mind. Mrs. Pedder, early years unit assistant, carefully sewed the pieces together; but due to the overwhelming number completed, ended up with four beautiful finished hangings, one of which will be displayed at St. John’s Church, Facit.

Throughout the last few months the children, staff and parents have enjoyed a whole range of Jubilee themed activities and outings to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which was at the beginning of June. HRH Queen Elizabeth II is only the second monarch to have ruled Britain for 60 years, the only other being her Great Great Grandmother Queen Victoria.

The highlight of the Jubilee celebrations was Mrs Elmer and her Class 3 pupils going to Burnley Football Club for the Royal Parties visit. When we looked at the schools who had been invited we realised that there was not a school from anywhere in our area, so Mrs. Elmer contacted some very important people in Burnley and asked if there was room for our little class of 16 children. To which they sent us an invitation. The children and staff had a wonderful day and flew their flags high as they sang the National Anthem and watched the fantastic displays of music and drama from local charities sponsored by Prince Charles.

The Eco-School Council got actively involved by inviting parents and members of the local community to help them plant hedgerows along a small area of Market Street in Shawforth. The hedgerows were purchased using a grant from Lancashire County Council and a plaque is to be placed to remind everyone that the hedgerows are to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee. Hopefully the hedgerows will grow as the children who planted them do.

Other activities that have been on-going have included non-uniform days, professional Jubilee photographs, cookery club; baking scones and jam tarts, arts project to design a mug, a ‘Best of British’ bag club making re-usable bags based on pictures that represent the children’s idea of Britain, Cheerleading with red pom-poms, a Crown Jewels Treasure Hunt, a community buffet lunch with a Union Jack theme, a colouring competition based on The Queen’s Knickers book and class 3 also entered a competition with a local paper by drawing portraits of the Queen.

The school also held two days that were packed with rotational Jubilee activities such as crown and mask making, Royal family tree investigating, jar decorating and role play.

The children, staff and parents who volunteered to help out had lots of fun over these two days. To finish off the activity days the items were then worn or used for the ‘Tiara Tea Party Summer Fair’ which raised over £600 for school funds. The Mayor and Mayoress of Whitworth attended and drew the raffle at the end of the fair.

The Friends (PTA) provided each member of staff and child with a commemorative Diamond Jubilee mug as we want the children to treasure the memories of the Jubilee forever.