Alleyn’s Celebrates the Coronation

Today our pupils have been celebrating the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort.

Celebrations started with a whole-school assembly in the Quad, where pupils heard from our Junior School Captains who gave a brief overview of what the Coronation will entail, followed by our Head Jane Lunnon who spoke about the rarity of this occasion and the historical significance of such a moment in all our lives.

Highlighting this Observer article by Tom Holland, Mrs Lunnon spoke about the nature of ritual in response to this historic event and highlighted how the monarchy represent the morals of time. This led her to reflect on the King’s passion for sustainable farming and lowering plastic pollution which is something he first spoke publicly about in the 1970’s.

Mrs Lunnon ended by encouraging pupils to lean into this occasion and to embrace it as a positive collective historic moment which connects us to the past.

Ending on a quote by His Majesty the King, Mrs Lunnon encourage us to enjoy “A sense in the sacred of everything around us.”

Mrs Lunnon was followed by our new School Captain Raphael who read a passage from the bible which will feature in tomorrow’s Coronation Ceremony.

Our School Chaplain Liz Lander proceeded to bless a tree to mark the occasion to represent His Majesty’s personal values to protect and cherish nature and to symbolise our collective desire for him to have a long reign. The tree was then planted in our new Coronation Garden adjacent to The Well.

This was followed Head of Junior School Mr Simon Severino reading an abridged version of the poem Nobility, by Alice Cary, with the assembly ending with Rev Lander giving a prayer for our new King and a collective rendition of the national anthem.

Further fun was had at lunch with a Coronation-themed meal, including dishes such as Coronation Salmon En Crown and Jersey Royal Potatoes!

In the afternoon both the Lower School and Junior School hosted Coronation afternoon teas for visiting guests, with our Lower School hosting 35 people from LinkAge Southwark and the nearby Almshouses.