EIGHT students from Darwen Vale High School are among almost 1,000 young people selected from all corners of the UK to be in attendance at Westminster Abbey for the Commonwealth Day Observance today, Britain’s largest annual inter-faith gathering.

The celebration will be attended by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duchess of Cambridge. This year’s Observance celebrates the 2015 Commonwealth theme ‘A Young Commonwealth’.

Speakers will include international child rights activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, Queen’s Young Leader and community mobiliser PJ Cole and and Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury MP, the first female Speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh.