Yesterday, 13 Westbourne House Year 6 pupils excitedly trotted into Chichester to try to catch a glimpse of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex whilst they were on their first trip to the county from which they take their name.
The pupils, consisting of form captains and deputy form captains, were anxious to get a prime spot from which they would be able to hand over a gift they had all made by hand for their Royal Highnesses.
The gift, an A-Z of Sussex, included pages on “F is for Fishbourne Roman Palace”, “M is for Marina”, “T is for Trundle” and “V is for vineyards”.
Charlotte Sleep, one of our French teachers, tells their story:
We arrived at West Street just after nine o’clock, and were surprised by how quiet the street was. We had the pick of the street as to where to stand. PC Dickie advised us that the Royal Party would be arriving at the Bell Tower so we assumed a position on the south side of the street opposite The Duke of Rye.
The pupils loved meeting the police dogs and the armed police officers.
Quickly, our A-Z caught the attention of the media. Heart FM recorded some sound bites of the pupils, asking them. “Who are you here to see, Harry or Meghan?”. This caught our pupils off-guard but I was unable to hold back before blurting out, “Harry!”
The high-life continued with the BBC South Today news crew and calling to arrange pieces to camera and ITV asking for our pupils to explain the A-Z!
Rebecca English, the Royal Correspondent from the Daily Mail, stood next to us in the group and said of the pupils,
The kids are such a credit to you and your school and you should be so proud.
We were also visited by The Observer, The i, bbc.co.uk and That’s TV.
At 10.30am, the helicopters began to circle and excitement mounted further. Soon, we could see the flashing blue lights of the police convoy, and the dark Range Rovers driving down from the Cross to the tower.
Harry and Meghan took much time to stop and speak to all the well-wishers lining West Street. Soon we could see them! We were all so excited!
And there they were! Meghan was first and she shook all of the pupils’ hands, saying, “I need to know all of your names!”. She had the A-Z presented to her by Alex Witcomb. However, for Meghan it was an “A to Zee”!
Harry was so charming and a huge hit with the children! He said, “You lot have very, very similar uniform to what I had at Wetherby in London” after asking which school the children were from. He enquired as to whether we were there on a school trip and then, asked the now infamous question (!), “Where’s your teacher?” I shook his hand and said, “Hello, oh, I’m not letting go!” And Harry comically retorted, “Please, let go!”
Tom then told Harry that they were missing double Latin and a test to be there to meet the royal pair to which Harry high-fived him! “The fact that you got out of double Latin because we’re here I think is fantastic, but…education is important!”
After some more pieces to camera, which permitted each and every pupil to have their time to shine, we skipped back to the our minibus overjoyed by a truly once in a lifetime experience. As one pupil said, “This was the best day of my life.”
Media Coverage
The media loved our pupils and Mrs Sleep. Here is some of the coverage:
https://people.com/royals/meghan-markle-prince-travel-sussex/
https://www.chichester.co.uk/news/chichester-pupil-names-chicken-after-meghan-markle-1-8655829
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