London: Christian & Muslim school children celebrate Palm Sunday together

William arriving at school

Around 500 children from a Catholic, an Anglican and a Muslim primary school, gathered together on their last day of term on Friday, for Palm Sunday celebrations.

St Mary's Priory Catholic primary school in Tottenham, north London, hosted visits by pupils from St Ann's CoE primary school and the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation school. There were processions around the school gardens and playground - with the star of the day: a donkey called William - before short open air services, led by Fr Clive Lee and Deacon Kassa Tsegaye from St Thomas More's RC church in Manor House and Fr Charlie Lacey from St Ann's CoE church, Tottenham.

Mark Lancaster, Head of St Ann's School said: "We've been doing a lot of learning about the Easter story in the last few days and coming here now for this service really brings the Gospel to life."

Miss Farhana from the Shakhsiyah Foundation School, next door to St Mary's, said the children from both schools often play together and sometimes have shared assemblies. " It's really nice for the children and teachers to get to know each other," she said. "Last week they came to us for a talk on Islamic inventions."

Mrs Florence Colliins Head Teacher at St Mary's told ICN: "Fr Clive regularly celebrates Masses here for the children. This school has a wonderful atmosphere. Last year we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Servites here and the 40th anniversary of the school. We have some families that have been her for three generations. The charism of the Servites has really permeated the school."

Read more about St Mary's here: www.stmarysrcn15.ik.org/

See more pictures of the day on ICN's Facebook page