Schools have marked the first day of national mourning for Queen Elizabeth II with slideshows, songs, group discussions on her death’s significance – and marmalade sandwiches.
The 10-day mourning period began on Friday, following the announcement of the death of the Queen on Thursday evening.
Schools have been advised to remain open as usual for the duration, although further guidance will be issued once details of the funeral are confirmed by Buckingham Palace.
If the date is confirmed as a bank holiday, UK schools will likely close.
Across England, many hosted special assemblies on Friday both to remember the nation’s longest-reigning monarch and to help children process her monumental passing.
Department for Education guidance state schools “may want to consider conducting special activities” or adapting lessons to reflect the period of mourning.
At The Friary School, in Staffordshire, leaders chose to keep the new rolling through breaktime, rather than hold a minute’s silence, and drew posters about the Queen with pupils.
Children at Vernon Park Primary, in Greater Manchester, were shown a slideshow of pictures of the Queen over the same music that was played at her husband the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
After an emotive rendition of the school song, they went back to classes in groups to discuss the event, with some watching BBC Newsround. Headteacher Claire Lee told Schools Week: “Our upper juniors were very interested in the line of succession – they already knew quite a lot because of the Platinum Jubilee earlier this year.
“We had such celebrations for the jubilee that the Queen is quite a memorable thing for the five year olds. We also spoke about her being a mummy, grandmother and a great-grandmother.”
Foundation stage children at Archbishop Cranmer Primary Academy, in Nottinghamshire, made marmalade sandwiches in a nod to the Queen’s recent jubilee sketch with Paddington Bear.
“We felt we wanted to celebrate this remarkable woman and her amazing qualities,” said headteacher Melanie Stevens.
“So today our youngest children in Foundation chose just one memory which was her sparkling wit and humour. The children remembered how Her Majesty had shared a sandwich with Paddington during her Platinum Jubilee – they loved that clip so much.”
Children at St Gerard’s Catholic Primary, in Cheshire, were invited to write prayers for the Queen to be kept in their book of condolences.
Swinemoor Primary School, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, used today’s assembly as an opportunity to “explain the significance of this event” to younger children “in an appropriate and sensitive way”.
Alongside a Union Jack, a portrait of the Queen took centre stage.
Secondaries tended to opt for a more formal approach.
Poignantly, a rendition of The Last Post, the bugle call often associated with wartime remembrance, was played by students at Reigate Grammar School, in Surrey, following a whole-school assembly on Friday morning.
At Bishop Heber High School, in Cheshire, students from all year groups also gathered for a memorial assembly.
The school’s headteacher, David Curry, said the event served “as a tribute and celebration of her reign over us.”
In Chorley, Lancashire, the rain held out despite ominous looking clouds as students gathered outside for a two-minute silence to pay their respects to and commemorate the service of the Queen.
Katie Boyes, the headteacher at Queen Elizabeth school in Wimborne, Dorset, reflected on the monarch’s ties with the institution.
The Queen visited the school in 2008. “It is with great sadness that we join together with the nation and the world in mourning the death of Her late Majesty The Queen, someone who is deeply rooted in the history of our school.
“As a school we have taken time to remember and reflect. King Charles and the Royal Family are in all of our thoughts and prayers.”
In an address to pupils at Hitchin Boys’ School in Hertfordshire, headteacher Fergal Moane spoke of the “many things” that will change as King Charles III takes to the throne.
“Although the nation has lost an anchor, this means a new chapter of our history begins today,” he added. “We should face this with confidence, a chance for renewal, a normal part of life’s natural order.”
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