The Queen walked into the new Coronation Library at Shirehampton Primary School just as the story being read to the children was reaching its climax. The Queen in the story was visiting Horrid Henry’s school, and a practical history lesson recreating a Tudor daub wall was about to go horribly wrong.
“‘How lovely’, mumbled the Queen, and there’s the Queen…” read the book’s author Francesca Simon to the group of pupils, showing the picture to the children. “Covered in mud,” interrupted Queen Camilla, with a smile. “Did you pick that one especially for the occasion?” she asked the author. “It’s an accident, we just happened to have it,” the author replied.
Later, after the real Queen had toured the school and met pretty much every pupil without getting covered in mud, Francesca Simon admitted that of course it was a deliberate choice, and Camilla knew all along.
In pictures: Queen Camilla's first visit since Coronation to Bristol school
“I did tell them it would be Horrid Henry Meets The Queen and I did say to her ‘sorry, it ends badly for you’, and she was well prepared and she read it last night,” said Francesca. “She always is so prepared. I picked it because I knew she would find it funny, she loves a good laugh,” she added.
The newly refurbished, re-stocked and revamped school library at Shirehampton Primary School was the focus of the visit - it’s the first of 50 special Coronation Libraries being created in schools across the country in more deprived areas where children are less likely to have access to books at home.
The initiative, from the National Literacy Trust, comes as one in seven schools in the UK don’t have their own libraries - which are a legal requirement in prisons, but not in schools. One in five of all five-to-eight-year-olds in the UK don’t own a book, something Francesca said she, the Queen and all the authors at the school today cared passionately about putting right.
The Horrid Henry author was in the library but around the school you couldn’t move without coming across another household name children’s author.
In the school hall, Noughts and Crosses author Malorie Blackman and How To Train Your Dragon creator Cressida Cowell - both former Children’s Laureates - were running a workshop for children from Shirehampton and ten other schools from Bristol and the surrounding area.
Each Coronation Library has two nominated pupil librarians, and they and their teachers came from Westlea and Robert Le Kyng primary schools in Swindon, St Julian’s in Newport, Mason Moor in Southampton, Dashwood Academy in Banbury, St Frideswide Primary in Oxford and Oasis New Oak, Summerhill Academy, Air Balloon and Avonmouth Primary schools in Bristol. The aim was to put ideas together and design your ‘dream library’, and so enraptured was the Queen in hearing the ideas at each table that the the hour scheduled for the entire royal visit - the first solo engagement for the new Queen since the Coronation - looked set to be taken over by just this in the school hall.
After checking out the library, guided by Shirehampton’s newest librarians Oritse and Shanan, and hearing all about the muddy, fictional Queen, it was time for the real Queen to get her hands dirty - almost.
In another classroom, Shirehampton’s budding Quentin Blakes were learning how to draw, from expert children’s illustrator and author Rob Biddulph. The Queen took her place next to pupil Ireoluwa Adegbuyi, nine, and the pair encouraged each other as Rob led the whole room in a step-by-step guide to how to draw a crown. Not just any crown, but the one placed on the Queen’s head at Westminster earlier this month.
After signing her effort, the Queen and Ire looked at each other’s and accepted his was probably better. After she’d headed off, the young pupil described the experience of being joined by a new classmate for that lesson as ‘awesome’.
Outside in the warm sunshine, everyone else in the school had gathered, forming a snaking line of classes, all waving flags they’d designed and created themselves. It’s a huge school - almost 600 pupils - and the Queen’s first walkabout since being crowned took a while. She chatted to the excited children, each class with a teacher quietly behind them trying to keep something approaching a lid on the fervour.
As she got to the final couple of classes, some music started and the entire school began to sing ‘Hey Tiger’, a song from the musical version of the children’s classic The Tiger Who Came To Tea.
The Queen left with a wave, after receiving flowers from a couple of the school’s younger pupils, Evan, five, and Daisy, six, and with the cheers still ringing in her ears. It had ended better than that visit to Horrid Henry’s school, that was certain.
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