To mark the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III on 6 May 2023, schools throughout the region celebrated this historical royal event in memorable and unique ways.
Less than a year since students celebrated the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, schools and trusts paid tribute to our newly crowned monarch with artwork, wildflowers, tea parties, and outreach in their local communities.
This week, Schools North East reached out to our schools to find out how the occasion was celebrated.
Holley Park Academy, Washington
Niki Mackay, a Teacher at Holley Park Academy, in Washington, reported:
‘The children came into school dressed in red, white and blue and took part in various coronation activities. These included a whole school assembly, made flags, decorated coronation biscuits, made coronation cakes, created a whole school collage of the King, made portraits of the King, made decorations such as paper chains and planted the King’s favourite flowers to grow in our Coronation garden. Our fantastic kitchen team made a brilliant banquet and fabulous cake for the children to enjoy to celebrate the coronation too.
All of the children from nursery to Year 6 took part in a variety of activities to make the day a real celebration – making memories to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III. Children and staff all had a fantastic day and will remember it for a long time to come.’
Holley Park is part of the Northern Lights Learning Trust.
King Edwin School, County Durham
Principal at King Edwin School, Lorna McLean, shared:
‘We held a celebratory day for students which included ‘attend as a king’, coronation facepainting, coronation quizzes, and a coronation party. Our most anxious students held a joint ‘coronation afternoon tea’. At the end of the day staff were invited to bring in their children for a family coronation event.’
Darras Hall Primary School, Ponteland
Darras Hall Primary School held a Community Tea and Cake afternoon for residents in their local area. They invited members of their local community into the school, for an afternoon tea of cakes and scones, prepared by their amazing chefs, Mr Bell and Mr Rowe.
Their guests were serenaded as they ate by the school’s ensemble and choir who performed traditional and modern pieces of music, led by Mrs Wigham, their specialist music teacher.
The hall was decorated Coronation style, with balloons, bunting and a life size cut-out of the King himself. Everyone commented on what a lovely afternoon it was and Darras Hall has since received letters of thanks as well.
Sunningdale School, Sunderland
Sunningdale School, a Specialist school in Sunderland were proud to create a pre-formal orchestra to mark the occasion. Head Teacher James Waller said:
“As a school for children with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties we strive to develop our pupil’s engagement with British values and broader British culture in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them. We felt that the coronation also presented an opportunity for our pre-formal orchestra, made up of children with profound and multiple learning difficulties, to celebrate an important moment in England’s history. We are really proud of the pupils in the pre-formal orchestra who always strive to personify the school’s ethos of ‘Be more…’
Newcastle School for Boys
Newcastle School for Boys reported that their pupils enjoyed a street-party style lunch wearing crowns that they had made that morning. The week’s assemblies and a number of lessons were also themed on the coronation to learn about the historical importance of the occasion.
Hexham First School
Justine Overton, Head Teacher at Hexham First School commented:
“We have had the most amazing day with our wonderful children in school. They had great fun through the day taking part in a variety of fun royal activities such as dressing up in our royal photo booth, playing royal bingo, pinning the crown on King Charles, planting sunflower seeds for King Charles, planting a royal Oak tree donated by Egger, burying a time capsule, covering themselves in royal tattoos, enjoying a visit from the ice cream van and bouncing on a bouncy castle and taking part in the best indoor street party ever! Parents joined in the celebrations and listened to children sing “sing for the King” and planting our Royal oak and burying the time capsule. Our plan was to create an event for the children to mark the coronation of King Charles III that they would remember forever, I think we managed it!”
Balmoral Learning Trust
Balmoral Learning Trust were delighted to share that they had been working in collaboration with Sunderland City Council, Coalfield Sunderland Community and West Sunderland Community to secure funding for their Coronation project. Fay Chase, HR and Governance Manager for Balmoral said:
“We have been successfully awarded £750 Community Chest support for Hetton Lyons Primary School and £2000 for East Herrington Primary Academy. This will go towards the final cost of wooden benches, designed by pupils and staff to commemorate King Charles III. Designs of the benches will represent the King’s love of nature and the environment.
The benches will be placed in our school grounds where our community will have access to a quiet, reflective place to sit when waiting for children.”
Students submitted their ideas for symbols and designs they would like to see on the commemorative benches and the project is ongoing.
The benches are currently under construction by a company called Reclaimed Earth. Balmoral are looking to have the project completed and the benches installed next half term. The benches have been inspired by King Charles’ love of nature. Balmoral received community chest funding for both schools (£2000 EHPA and £750 HLPS) the Friends of School at EHPA have also donated a further £250 towards this project. The schools look forward to sharing the completed benches with their community.
Additionally, East Herrington Primary Academy had an indoor street party, with fantastic food provided by their in house catering team. There were lots of dancing and celebratory games for all to enjoy the coronation of King Charles III.
Year 6 particularly enjoyed Coronation day with many activities : making a mosaic orb, an indoor picnic, pin the crown on King Charles and fun games in the hall. It was a welcome break from SATs revision! In commemoration of the coronation of King Charles III, Balmoral Learning Trust gifted a coin to all children in their trust to remember this special occasion.
Borough Road Nursery School, Darlington
Borough Road Nursery School, in Darlington, held a tea party for students to mark the occasion. They celebrated the Coronation of King Charles III with crown making activities and parading around the gardens, followed by a tea party fit for a king!
Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust
Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust has schools located across East Durham, South Tyneside and Sunderland. They celebrated in style in their schools and gave every pupil and every member of staff a specially designed Trust bookmark to remember the day.
Mowden Hall School, Northumberland
Mowden Hall School celebrated the Coronation last Friday with a Royal Picnic and special activities, including their own coronation ceremony recreation. Additionally, the boarders’ at the school took part in a Coronation themed challenge which resulted in them solving the clues to spell out “King Charles”. Here they are with their own Coronation Crowns!
St Mark’s Primary School, Stockton-on-Tees
Lisa Connor, Assistant Head Teacher at St Mark’s Primary School said:
“At school on Friday 5th May, all children were invited to come into school wearing red, white and blue. We all created crowns and conducted a whole school parade showing off our crowns. We also used every child in school to create a crown on the school playground. The children learnt all about the coronation in class and how important the king is to the Church of England.”
Department for Education spread Wildflowers throughout England
The DfE joined forces with the Eden Project to send wildflower seeds to primary schools across the country to celebrate the coronation. The initiative saw 200,000 packets planned for schools including native annual wildflower species, like cornflower, corn poppy and corn chamomile. Traditionally, trees are planted to mark royal coronations in the UK.
Additionally, the DfE released resources for schools and leading up to the big day schools took part in events such as The Coronation Big Lunch and The Big Help Out.
Tes reported the wildflowers cost the DfE £350,000 and while the gesture was a valuable resource for teaching students about biodiversity in school, the plan was criticised by some as the recent school strikes were partly driven by the significant funding pressures that schools are currently under.
Chris Zarraga, Director of Schools North East said:
“It has been wonderful to see how the schools in our region have celebrated this historic occasion. To enrich their students’ lives and broaden their experiences, our schools have made huge efforts, making this event as memorable and informative as possible. Its an amazing effort, especially considering that this time of year is one when students and staff are under so much pressure. Ultimately, our amazing schools always put children at the heart of everything they do and I think the photos show that this week has produced memories that will last a lifetime. Well done to everyone!”
Holley Park Academy, King Edwin School, Darras Hall Primary School, Sunningdale School, Newcastle School for Boys, Hexham First School, Hetton Lyons Primary School, East Herrington Primary Academy. Borough Road Nursery School, St Mark’s Primary School
are all Schools North East Partner Schools. If you’d like to find out more about our Partner School Programme click here.
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