IT was a very special day for girls and staff at The Royal School on Tuesday when the school's president, Princess Anne, visited for prizegiving. The school had been through eight months of planning for the royal visit, and brilliant sunshine was an added bonus greeting the Princess Royal. She was introduced to girls, staff and guests before presenting prizes in a marquee at The Royal junior school site in Hindhead. Parents, staff and guests and groups of smiling, and clearly excited, girls were eagerly waiting for the arrival of the princess at a garden party in the grounds before the ceremony. Pupils from the Haslemere senior school were bused in to join the party. Princess Anne has been school president since 1975 and has visited five or six times. On this occasion, her visit marked the beginning of new developments at both school sites, which will be paid for by money from the compulsory purchase of five acres of the junior school playing fields for the A3 Hindhead tunnel and roadworks scheme. New lacross and sports fields will be laid out, new classrooms and a dedicated arts facility will be converted in the Hindhead Court building at the senior school, and there will be a gallery at the junior school's sports hall. There will also be a new entrance off the A3, and the restored water garden will be extended for science study, alongside the new daycare centre for the youngest pupils. Excited parents, staff, distinguished guests (including the mayor and his wife) and girls eagerly awaited the arrival of Princess Anne and joined in the garden party in The Royal School grounds where the prizegiving ceremony place.
