November 9, 2022

We are incredibly proud to announce that Elliott Hudson College student Blessing Hachem, had the honour of meeting His Majesty the King, Charles III, during the monarch’s tour of Leeds.

On 9^th November 2022 His Majesty attended the 10^th year anniversary celebrations of Child Friendly Leeds at Leeds Art Gallery. The visit was part of his tour of Leeds and West Yorkshire, his first official visit to the county since becoming monarch.

Blessing, a Year 13 student, was invited to meet the King as a member of the UK’s Youth Parliament and was excited and overwhelmed by the honour:

“I was completely shocked when I found out that I was invited to meet King Charles III. It was such an honour that I can’t even begin to describe and had to keep the news of it a secret from all my friends, which was so hard – it’s a very delicate balance between wanting to be excited and wanting to keep it a secret, but in the end, it was worth it because now I have an amazing story to tell!”

Blessing was elected a member of Youth Parliament, in March 2022 and never expected to be meeting the King eight months later. As a Member of Youth Parliament, Blessing has met with other young people from all over the UK and has recently debated in the House of Common about mental health issues amongst young people. Before her meeting with His Majesty, Blessing and the other members of Youth Parliament was given royal training on the ‘dos and don’ts’ when meeting a member of the Royal Family.

“I was told not to ask him any personal questions and on first meeting we have to call him “Your Majesty” and after that we were told to refer to him only as ‘Sir’” Blessing explained, “we also weren’t allowed to start a conversation with him; instead, we were supposed to answer the questions he asked us – which made me quite nervous as I didn’t know what he might ask me.”

Blessing also described the process of going through the security at the gallery on the day:

“We didn’t know exactly when he would be arriving on the day, but I was quite nervous going through security at the gallery, with all the crowds of people and press outside. It felt like being at an airport!”

Despite, her initial nerves, Blessing meeting with His Majesty was much more normal than she had expected: “I thought it would be very formal and like a job interview, and I was nervous about not being professional enough, but actually we had a normal conversation, and he was quite funny and very friendly – it was definitely not what I expected.”

“Blessing is very deserving of this honour” says Mrs Carr, “she is a great representative of the college, and sets a great example to others in terms of standing up for what she believes in but in a positive and appropriate way. She should be very proud of herself.”