Crawley headteacher beams with pride as school gets Royal visit from the Duchess of Edinburgh

Her Royal Highness visited Manor Green College on Wednesday (March 13) and interacted with students and staff, as well as getting involved in lessons.

Pupils helped her make scones, told her their favourite animals and talked about getting prepared for their Duke of Edinburgh Gold expedition next week.

Manor Green College is a special school provision for 11 to 19 year olds. Their core purpose is to discover and develop every student’s potential in preparation for their adult lives.

And headteacher Tom Smith said excitement levels have been high since they found out about the VIP visit.

“We were reaching fever pitch about a week ago when the letter went out,” he said. “I cannot express to you the excitement amongst the students and how proud they are to be recognised and visited by someone so special. That was really apparent with the young people who were lucky enough to be part of the visit.”

And Her Royal Highness got to meet a number of students on her visit - and even got an apron on to help make some scones in a catering class.

She showed particular interest in the students doing their Duke of Edinburgh Gold expedition.

Mr Smith said: “It was a cross section of our population. We have a magical amazing mystery mix of young people with SEN here and Her Royal Highness was lucky enough to meet some of those children.

We went to our sixth form block where she accessed some catering and some cookery which is based around the life skills element we offer here at the college.

“She then went into our DT class where she got to have a go at some practical elements and then she met our Duke of Edinburgh students, our Gold cohort who are off to do their practice expedition this week.

“The Duchess seemed to enjoy engaging with the young people and was really pleased with the scones produced in the cookery session she took part in. She seemed to enjoy speaking to our young people embarking on their Gold Duke of Edinburgh, so it’s been a really successful visit.”

And Mr Smith was proud of the way his pupils interacted and engaged with the special visitor.

“Some of the children we have are very anxious and can find communicating challenging at times and to see them in a room with lots of new people and with somebody so important, holding court and speaking so eloquently about what they are doing, about the school, where they are going.

“We are really proud as a school and I am sure the parents will be to when they hear about it and see some of the pictures too. It’s been a really lovely day.”

Her Royal Highness also visited Super Siblings, a support group for children who have disabled brothers and sisters, based at Manor Green.