May Queen is a tradition that has been held in Eastington village for many years.
Traditionally the May Queen was crowned to celebrate the coming of Summer and she would process around the village at the start of a festival day. The tradition of crowning a May Queen in Eastington has only been broken during World War II.
May Queen selection in school is now about character. The children in the school vote for the person they they think most embodies our school values of responsibility, ambition, resilience, kindness and cooperation. The Year 6 girls who wanted to stand for May Queen this year wrote wonderfully varied speeches about our school values – they were honest, mature, heartfelt and fun! They are all to be congratulated on presenting their speeches to the children across the school via Teams with real confidence .
The children in the school then voted for their May Queen – Emelia was chosen – a worthy winner indeed.
The drizzle came on May Queen day but nothing could dampen the celebration! Class 3 danced the Cheltenham Flyer brilliantly, Emelia, our new May Queen, read her wonderfully funny speech and was crowned as the 112th Eastington May Queen.
Enjoy reading Emelia’s thoughts below….
My May Queen Experience
Hi, I am Emelia, I am the 2021 May Queen.
At first, I was very scared to put my name down to stand as May Queen, but my friends convinced me I would make a great May Queen. After a long time preparing my speech, hoping it would make people smile, Mrs Yorke took all the year six girls to read their speeches. This was very different to usual, as the reading of our speeches took place on Microsoft Teams due to Covid 19. I was the third person to read my speech, I remember my hands shaking as I read out my speech! I sighed in relief when I sat down for the next person to read theirs. All the other girls did a brilliant job and all of them deserved to be May Queen.
A few weeks went by since we all read our speeches and Ms Avastu was about to announce who was going to be May Queen… “Emelia!” she called as a leap of happiness spread through my body…I was May Queen! All my Friends were happy that I’d won and I was most excited to tell my mum and dad.
I started to get ready to read my speech to the whole school on May Queen day – this time in person! I felt really confident when May 28th came. I was taken out of class early to get the special dress on ready to process around the playground and get crowned. When I was ready, I walked down the old wooden steps and once in the school library, I took Ms Avastu’s arm and we walked around the playground while she rang the school bell. After we had done a lap, I sat down on the May Queen throne and she crowned me “The May Queen 2021”. The whole school hailed me!
Class 3 performed some country dancing, which they completed with grace. I then went to the church yard to get some pictures taken…I will always remember being May Queen.
Emelia, Year 6 at Eastington Primary School