It was a special day for 12-year-old Jacaranda School pupil John Samson on Wednesday when he made history for himself and the country by winning the 2012 Commonwealth Essay competition and he finally met the Queen.
Samson, who is in standard six and wants to become a pilot, got the honour of presenting to the Queen of England a tablet featuring his winning essay titled, The Day I wore My Best Clothes.
Samson left the country last Friday accompanied by Jacaranda School founder Marie Da Silva and school director Luc Deschamps.
Deschamps said Samson was chosen out of all the guests to present the tablet to the Queen.
He added that Samson had the h’onour of presenting the Queen with a tablet featuring his essay, along with the 60 best testimonies out of the tens of thousands of entries written by citizens from the 54 Commonwealth countries.
Deschamps said every year, the Royal Commonwealth Society in London launches an international essay competition open to students from Commonwealth countries.
He said this year was a very special year as Queen Elizabeth is celebrating 60 years on the throne.
“It’s something special for him and he drew so much attention from the media here. He will have a line-up of interviews and then he will visit the House of Parliament and on Friday [today] where we will have tea with the Dean of Westminster,” he said.
Deschamps said, at Jacaranda School for Orphans this year, they encouraged their students from both primary and secondary school to enter the essay competition.
“Twelve children submitted essays and three weeks ago, we were stunned to receive a long email from The Royal Commonwealth Society revealing that John Samson, one of our Standard six students, had been chosen as the winner of the Junior Essay Competition, out of 8,500 entries! It is a huge honour for John and for our school,” he said.
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