Kids at a north-east school have left a lasting legacy in honour of the Queen.
Kininmonth School pupils planted a tree as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative. The scheme invites people all over the UK to “plant a tree for the jubilee” to mark Her Majesty’s 70 years on the throne.
The children have been learning about the royal family and in particular the life of the Queen.
On February 6, the Queen marked her platinum jubilee as monarch. The country will celebrate with a four-day weekend from June 2 to 5.
P5-7 pupils read out an interesting fact they’d learned about the Queen, while P1-4 pupils showed off royal-themed pictures they had made.
After short speeches by head teacher Briony Mair and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, Douglas Fowlie, pupils Lia Noble, 8, Jessica Legarda, 6, and Kaileb Wallace, 10, helped to plant the horse chestnut tree in the school grounds near Peterhead.
‘All my life I’ve had the Queen – and the kids think I’m ancient!’
Head teacher Briony Mair said: “We’re saving most things for June, when most of the national celebrations are going to be. That’s when we’ll be doing little topics about the Queen and royal family, and the Commonwealth.
“Today we found out information about the Queen and they all chose a fact they were interested in and drew a picture about it. We also had a wee chat about it in assembly.
“We were interested in the Green Canopy because we want to become an Eco School.
“I’ve been trying to underline that this is very unusual, that no other King or Queen has reigned for 70 years. All my life I’ve had the Queen – and the kids think I’m ancient – so it hits home for the kids.
“When we talked about her life, and her working for the armed forces as a mechanic during the Second World War, that made them realise just how long she’s been around for.”
70 years – ‘a remarkable record’
Mr Fowlie added: “The jubilee is a great chance to show what the royal family is all about, what it does, all the charitable work the Queen does.
“It’s just a remarkable record. There’s only two longer reigning monarchs in history than her, and none in this country. So it’s a great achievement by her.
“It’s terribly interesting to let the kids see the history of the royal family and the good work the Queen does.
“Her idea is to always try to encourage people to do better for themselves. And that’s something we want to encourage in young kids today.
“We see with the likes of Greta Thunberg how young people can change the world.
“It’s nice to open kids’ eyes up to what is out there and what they can do.”
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