On the morning after the Queen’s death, Rabbi Alex Chapper of Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue joined pupils at the local Yavneh Primary for a special assembly.
He spoke to them “about the feeling they might have when someone dies”, said the school’s head, Caroline Field.
“He also explained what the Queen had achieved during her reign, the legacy she has left and showed a reply he had to a letter he had written to express his condolences upon the death of Prince Philip.
“We then talked about the prayer recited in shul on Shabbat and the changes that will be made to it now that the country has a King.”
JeffGILB YavnehPrimary11
Josiah
Like primary schools throughout the country, Yavneh has been trying to deal with the monarch’s passing in an age-appropriate way. Ms Field said Yavneh had made it “a time to reflect, to appreciate and to be grateful for everything that she did.
“Our big focus was the Queen’s dedication to the UK and other Commonwealth countries, along with her resilient, determined but still humorous personality — and the many changes that had occurred during her lifetime.”
Seven-year-old Olivia, a Year 2 pupil at Yavneh, told the JC: “I learned that the Queen’s favourite colour was pink.
JeffGILB YavnehPrimary14
Amelie, Eliana and Rachel
“I felt sad when my mum told me that she had died because it feels weird without her and it’s really sad that she passed away because she is the only Queen I have had.”
Six-year-old Darcie said: “My teacher told me a little bit about the Queen’s life on Friday and when we were eating lunch, we watched the video of her with Paddington, which I liked because they both had marmalade sandwiches.”
Cooper, six, “was really sad when the Queen died because she has been really important to all of us.
“But I heard on the news that lots of people have come to her castles to give her flowers and cards, which is so lovely.
“My mummy said she died at her favourite place in Scotland. I saw that afterwards lots of people saw King Charles become King and they had to sign a piece of paper. My mum said she will tell me when we can watch his coronation on TV.”
Six-year-old Samuel’s older sister is “very interested in the Royal Family” and they watched the news of the Queen’s death together.
JeffGILB YavnehPrimary7
Mason and Mia
“I was wondering what would happen at the Queen’s funeral and I knew that the national anthem would change from the one we learned in Year 1. On Friday, we had to wait to have our Friday night dinner because my mum wanted to let the King finish speaking on TV.”
Ten-year-old Louis saw the news while scrolling through social media.
“I was on TikTok and I saw videos saying that the Queen had died — but I didn’t believe it. I ran downstairs to ask my family and they were already talking about it, so I realised it was true.
“Our teacher showed us a video of her jumping out of a plane with James Bond at the Olympics [opening ceremony in London 2012] which I thought was cool. I like her personality because she seemed funny and nice,” he explained.
Josiah, 10, said “lots of people” were discussing the Queen’s passing at school the following day, adding that the special assembly had addressed “lots of the good moments in her life, along with some of the sad moments like when she lost Princess Diana”.
Mason, 10, said he learned the news while watching television with his brother. “We were already worried that the Queen had died and then it went silent and said she had passed away at Balmoral.
“I was scared about what is going to happen because the Queen had been ruling since she was 25 and she has helped with lots of things.”
Ten-year-old Amelie said pupils had watched a BBC Newsround broadcast at school “which told us what had happened to the Queen.
“I remember that the news had been talking about her health a lot this year. I was sad because she is the only Queen I have ever known in my life and maybe it will be different with a king.”
Eliana, 10, was “shocked” by the news because “I saw her smiling in lots of recent photos and I never saw a picture of her frowning”.
