Royal reply is crowning glory

Pupils at Farrowdale House Independent Preparatory School, in Shaw.

Pupils invite the Queen to tea party

A GROUP of youngsters appear to have melted hearts at Buckingham Palace.

An adorable letter sent and signed by pupils at Farrowdale House Independent Preparatory School, in Shaw, even touched the Queen and prompted some very special royal mail for the pre-school and reception class.

After writing to Her Majesty inviting her to their royal tea party and asking her lots of questions — including "How many doggies and sparkly crowns do you have?" — a personally addressed letter arrived back.

As well as thanking the children for the "lovely" photograph they sent of themselves, the letter, signed by Lady-In-Waiting Annabel Whitehead, said the Queen hoped they’d had a lovely tea party.

Pre-school teacher Hayley Rafferty — or "Mrs R" as she is known to the children — said they decided to write to the Queen for a project on inspirational people.

She and reception teacher Vicky Corrigan —who is the sister of “Mrs R” — said they weren’t even sure they’d get a reply, let alone a personal one.

"We thought we might get a standard letter back if we were lucky but to get something addressed to the children and personally written is just amazing," said Hayley.

"Their faces when we told them the Queen had asked this special lady to write back to them, it was a truly magical moment and probably the highlight of my teaching career.

"We even Googled the lady-in-waiting’s name and showed the children a picture of her with the Queen, which they loved.

"Just the fact they’ve mentioned things that were in the children’s letter and signed it with fountain pen, it’s wonderful.

"We decided to learn about the Queen as an inspirational person because all the children know who she is. We made crowns, we taught them the national anthem and they sang it all the way through in assembly which was a massive achievement for these little children.

"We had a royal tea party when they wore their crowns and we had cake stands and scones and played music. It was a lovely week and this just finishes it all off."

The youngsters — Henry, Ruby, Alice, Lulu, Isaac, Noah, Darcey, Stanley, Poppy and Seher — also asked if there was a king and how big Buckingham Palace is.

Along with the royal reply were some leaflets so the children can learn more in class.