Prince Charles tells Grenfell pupils they can make a 'real difference'
The Prince of Wales met with pupils who were affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Aldridge Academy in London.
Wednesday 13 February 2019 22:34, UK
The Prince of Wales has delivered a message of encouragement at a school affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy, saying he hopes the pupils will make a "real difference to the future of this country".
Prince Charles was visiting Kensington Aldridge Academy, known as KAA, a secondary school that sits right next to Grenfell Tower.
When the fire happened in July 2017 the school had to relocate to a temporary site. Five of their pupils died in the fire and many had to be rehoused.
The pupils and teachers only moved back to their original school building in West London last September.
The visit was a chance for the Prince of Wales to see how the school is continuing to thrive despite dealing with the trauma of the fire.
During an impromptu speech, the prince said: "It isn't always easy, there are a lot of appalling challenges out there, but I hope your experiences here will help you a little bit to cope with those challenges and make a real difference to the future of this country."
The school's motto is intrepidus, the Latin word meaning to be bold or be brave, or adventurous. It was chosen by the headteacher David Benson when they opened in 2014.
Speaking to Sky News after the visit, he said: "No school should ever have to go through what KAA went through in terms of the five students that we lost, in terms of the number of students we had that were rehoused or survived the tower.
"But you have to keep going, what's the alternative?
"And actually being able to bring the students together into one place and to help support them, I think was a good thing.
"If all the students in this immediate area had been going to lots of different schools, in different boroughs it might have been harder to offer that support."
It's been recognised as one of the best academies in the UK and in 2017 after the fire Ofsted graded the school as not only "outstanding" in all areas but also described standards as "exceptional".
It is striking how well the school is performing academically but they also place a huge emphasis on giving all students access to creative subjects and other extra-curricular activities such as sport and a debating club.
Talking about what the school has meant to her over the past 18 months, 15-year-old Yusra Mrimou said: "They've supported us every way, every part of the journey from beginning to now, and forever there will be support.
"And I think it's great we do have people to lean on, people to go to."
Jake Ayling, 13, told Sky News that the school had shown real "resilience", adding: "We have a great therapy team who helped a lot of people that I know get over what had happened, and I think the leadership team really handled the move well."
During the visit Prince Charles sat in on history and geography lessons and also spent time in the school's library.
In his speech to the pupils he said: "We are going to rely on so many of you, and many of you, I'm sure, are going to be frighteningly clever computer engineers and people helping to sort out all these cyber security issues (that) I don't understand, but I'm sure many of you will help to make sure we can do our best.
"So best of luck all of you, and as I said to some of you, you can always blame me if you don't pass the exams."
Prince Charles is patron of Teach First, a fast-track teacher training charity which places staff in disadvantaged areas, and was one if many charities that offered support to the school after the tower fire.