LITTLE ones grow up so quickly these days — but don’t let these pictures alarm you. Nursery pupils just three and four from South Street Primary School, in Gateshead, dressed up in their best frocks to take part in a pretend marriage ceremony. The mock wedding, held at St Mark’s Church, in Durham Road, was the result of a term-long project exploring what it means to love someone, as well as the importance of making and keeping a promise. Two ceremonies were held, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with the Rev Richard Bainbridge, to make sure all 48 children could take part. Everyone was allocated a role and there were no shortages of volunteers. The bride and groom in the second wedding were four-year-olds Hannah Berard and Leyton Otto. Leyton’s best man was his real-life best friend Jordan-Lee Scott, also four. However, it was the bride’s father, Liam Fisk, four, who was the most excited as his parents were getting married for real at Gateshead’s Civic Centre the following day. Nursery teacher Paula Smith said: “It’s taken about six weeks to plan, but we all thought it would be a nice way to end our project which looked at what it means to love someone. “We tried to make it relevant to the curriculum as much as possible too. We looked at fairytale stories that ended in a wedding to cover literacy and the children learned about how to share and divide the cake for numeracy. “It also helped to develop their creative learning, because they have been busy making hearts, collages of horseshoes and painting pictures of brides. “This may seem like a grown-up subject to tackle, but the children have loved every minute of it and I’m sure we’ll be doing it again.” During the ceremony, the children sang hymns and the bride and groom exchanged rings. The school was keen to make the ceremony as realistic as possible, but the Reverend had to use simplified vows to make sure the wedding wasn’t legal! Many parents became tearful as they watched the ceremony and, afterwards, a “reception” was held at the school and the bride and groom cut a cake the pupils had made especially. The event also served as a way of introducing the children to the church. Miss Smith said: “Not all of the children had been in a church before, so it was an opportunity to see what it was like and to talk about behaviour. We explained that it was important to be respectful and quiet and told them it was a place where people come to think and talk to God. “This is a big concept for very young children to get their head around, but the wedding ceremony was a good way of introducing it to them.” She added: “This has been a real joint effort, with staff, pupils and parents working together.” | 
Northumberland
