Description:Holiday children at school are told by princess: "You deserve the best"
The new Birmingham caught Princess Alexandra by surprise when she walked to the top floor of Lee Bank Primary School during her visit to the city today. Formally opening the school, she said: "There has been a transformation in the heart of the city. I was not prepared for the dramatic picture from the upper floor of this building". She congratulated those concerned in the development of the school which, she said, would give its pupils a "wonderful start in life". The visit to the school was the first stop in the Princess's flying six-hour visit to the city.
After formal presentations, her first words were to 10-year-old Susan Clark, of William Street, Ladywood - one of the 300 children who broke their Easter holiday to welcome the Royal visitor.
"What lessons are you missing?" the Princess asked. "None," replied Susan. "Anyway, I suppose they are the ones you don't like," laughed the Princess. The Princess, who said she had studied the city's redevelopment since her last visit in 1958, congratulated the Education Authority on the rapid expansion of their Teachers' Training College which she had opened then. Alderman F.T.D. Hall, Chairman of the City's Education Committee, had told the Princess that since the college was opened with 200 students, it had expanded until there were now 1,200 attending. The Princess, wearing a mushroom coloured Persian lamb knee-length coat told an audience of children, parents and officials: "Children are eager to learn. They ask questions which are legion. Education of the highest order should be available to every one of our children, and their first years at school are of paramount importance." In one classroom, the radiant Princess, wearing a tangerine velvet hat perched on the back of her head, left her offical party to look at the work of the junior needlework class. With a grey rag elephant, made by the children, in her hand the Princess spoke to the needlework teacher, Mrs Dawn Plant, and then inspected pin cushions and sewing bags which the girls aged between seven and ten were making. The Princess had a few words for seven-year old Jenny Watiss, who was wearing her best red party dress for the Royal occasion. "What are you making?" asked the Princess, but little Jenny was too shy to answer. Princess Alexandra also chatted to eight-year-old Hazel Ward and Annette Bridges, aged seven, who were among the 16 girls in the class. Mrs Plant said afterwards: "I never thought the Princess would speak to me. She was most interested in the needlework the girls were doing and asked when they would be returning to school from their holidays." When the princess left the classroom, eight-year-old Beverley Williams said: "She was lovely. I wouldn't mind her for my teacher."
Mr. D.Lyons, Headmaster of Lee Bank Primary School, which has been open since January, said almost all the school's children had "broken" their holiday to make the Royal visit a great success. "Princess Alexandra was most impressed with the nursery children and accepted a little cake from one of our four-year-olds," he added. "She was very interested in the library and asked a lot of questions about it". For ten-year-old Maxine Kane, the climax of weeks of rehearsal came when she presented a bouquet of freesias from all her schoolfriends to the Princess. Maxine, who lives in Wheeley's Road, Edgbaston, wore a white nylon and lace party frock which she had worn for her birthday yesterday.