Report and photos: Sam Spearing-Evans

West End pupils, staff, parents and friends had a memorable afternoon as they celebrated the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle.

The school was decorated beautifully with red, white and blue bunting, hearts and pictures of the happy couple. Much of the décor was totally bespoke, hand made by the children as the excitement gathered momentum for this great moment in history.

West End don’t do things by halves and always think of ways to make the children’s learning journey a fun and memorable one - so they decided to have an actual wedding conducted by a minister!

Sadly, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was unable to attend so the school asked the next best person Reverend Stuart Haynes to help conduct this very special tribute wedding service.

Everyone came to school dressed in wedding attire to all be a part of this great day. Guests took their seats, along with the Mayor of West Lancashire Noel Delaney as they awaited the arrival of West End’s Royal party.

The MC announced Kings and Queens from around the world as they told us facts about their countries; bridesmaids, a page boy and the Queen made their grand entrance before mini Ms Markle walked down the aisle to meet her mini Prince.

Reverend Stuart Haynes helped the school’s very own Archbishop marry the happy couple, and all guests stood for the National Anthem before the children delivered a wonderful treat to all.

Only very few guests managed to not reach for the tissues as the children sang and signed ‘A Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri! This was their dedicated song to Prince Harry and the soon to be Princess Meghan.

The entire service showed everyone the children’s understanding that no matter what faith you are, what race you are, what disability you may have or what your culture is, everyone is accepted at West End, something that our future generation also believe that Harry and Meghan symbolize.

Guests and the wedding party then enjoyed a very ‘Royal’ street party and picnic style of celebratory lunch, and the Mayor thanked all the children and staff for their hard work and asked everybody to raise their glasses and toast Prince Harry and Ms Markle on their marriage.

Head Teacher Phil Clarke told QLocal: "It has been an amazing day!

"The children and staff have put so much work into making this a memorable occasion. Our West End community is extremely important to us so it was wonderful to see so many faces all together celebrating this very happy event.

"I’m so proud of each and every child for learning the Makaton (style of sign language), the Portico nursery children have joined in and have learnt this also which was fabulous to see."

And West End know how to party and it continued for some time, lots of cake was consumed but many of the calories were burnt off with dancing and even a house team conga competition around the playground and field. No wedding can come to an end without a conga!

Ormskirk West End Primary School wish Prince Harry and Princess Meghan a long and very happy marriage.