Pupils from Buckholme Towers School and Nursery in Lower Parkstone, Poole were among nearly 1,000 young people from all corners of the UK in attendance at Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Day Observance, Britain’s largest annual inter-faith gathering on Monday March 9.
The celebration was attended by Her Majesty The Queen and Their Royal Highnesses The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duchess of Cambridge. This year’s Observance celebrated the 2015 Commonwealth theme ‘A Young Commonwealth’.
Speakers included international child rights’ activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Kailash Satyarthi; Queen’s Young Leader and community mobiliser, PJ Cole; and Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury MP, the first female Speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh.
The multi award-winning South African a cappella group, The Soil performed and Indian poet, Sharanya Manivannan read a new poem, commissioned for Commonwealth Day.
Iain Robertson, headmaster at Buckholme Towers School and Nursery, said: “Eight lucky pupils were very excited to visit Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Observance. It was great for them to step inside the iconic building and to listen to the inspirational speeches.”
The children present in the Abbey – including those presenting posies to The Queen and The Duchesses – were from schools currently involved in Commonwealth projects.
Buckholme Towers School and Nursery on Commercial Road, Lower Parkstone, provides education for children from two years and nine months to 11 years old.