Pupils sing their hearts out with own version of national anthem for the jubilee at George Grenville Academy

Children at George Grenville Academy performed a stirring rendition of the National Anthem for the jubilee complete with their own take on the iconic song. 

Children at George Grenville Academy performed a stirring rendition of the National Anthem for the jubilee complete with their own take on the iconic song. 

In celebration of the Queen’s platinum jubilee pupils at the school were invited to enter a competition to write an alternative verse of the national anthem to be performed at the school’s jubilee party. 

And the entries flooded in, with the children drawing on all their knowledge of the queen and Britain’s traditions. 

Teachers at the school were incredibly impressed with the entries but one verse stood out as the winner. 

Year 4 pupil Fiamma, wrote a verse which links to the Queen’s Green Canopy, an initiative to ‘plant a tree for the jubilee’ with thousands of trees planted all over the country. 

The words to the verse included the line ‘years past this jubilee, we’ll rest beneath her trees’ and ‘seventy years she’s seen, since she was crowned our queen, in splendour evergreen.’ 

The children learned and embraced the alternative version, making a video of them singing to mark the occasion. 

Headteacher Emma Killick said: “We were blown away by the entries and loved reading them. We chose Fiamma’s as the winner as we really liked the link to the green canopy, a subject which is important to us all. All of the children sang their hearts out and put so much effort into making bunting and enjoying the day. It was a wonderful celebration.” 

Fiamma, age nine, said “I am so happy for the Queen during this historic event. It was lovely to hear the whole school sing the verse I wrote for the National Anthem. I came up for the idea after we planted a tree together at school as part of the Green Canopy project. I am so proud.” 

As well as learning and performing the alternative version of the national anthem, staff and pupils festooned the school with bunting designed and made by the pupils, featuring portraits of the Queen. 

Emma Killick added: “All classes were inspired by an artist and designed portraits of the Queen in the artist's style. These were then made into bunting to be hung around the school which looked fantastic. The bunting was later donated to the local church to use for their community lunch.” 

As part of the celebrations, the whole school enjoyed a picnic and the children were gifted badges from the school PTA, FROGGS, to commemorate the occasion.