CHILDREN put on their best suits and dresses for a roleplay wedding which also taught them about aspects of the First World War.

Hedgehog Class at Collingbourne C of E School acted out what they had learned during RE lessons about weddings.

The bride and groom – Olivia Griffiths and Harry Pettit – were given the surnames of two people taken from the old Collingbourne Ducis village school memorial and the old Collingbourne Kingston Village School war memorial – Annetts and Fisher. Both Victorian schools now form the Collingbourne C of E School.

Corporal Thomas Annetts was brought up in Collingbourne Kingston and served with the Lincolnshire Regiment in the Boer War and died in the First World War on 25 September, 1915, aged 33. His name is one of 11,000 listed on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium who have no known grave.

Private Frank Fisher was brought up in Collingbourne Ducis and served with the Wiltshire Regiment and died on 12 March, 1915, aged 26. His name is one of 54,000 listed on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial who have no known grave.

The six and seven-year-old pupils had been learning about what it means to belong to someone or something and had been talking about the promises people make and out of this came the idea to hold the ‘wedding’ at St Andrew’s Church.

Teacher Jill Stevens said: “The specially written roleplay service was conducted by the Reverend Jo Reid with flowers laid on by the St Andrews Church flower team. There was a film crew filming for the wedding video plus an official photographer together with music from the church organist Joy Guy.

“Invitations were distributed to the parents and local community, and on the day the church was full.”