Pupils at Thames Ditton Junior School travelled the United States of America without leaving the comfort of their classrooms.

As part of creative arts week, which ran from February 10 to 14, classes focused on a different American state, with children investigating facts and figures on their chosen area.

Lessons in cheerleading, lindyhop dancing and Native American workshops were all on offer alongside usual lessons, which were themed around the USA and its culture and history.

A former Thames Ditton Junior School pupil, Jonathon Fretheim, also got in on the action, and came back to the school to teach children basketball skills in homage to the United States.

Claire Voo, year 3 teacher, said: “With such a diverse mix of cultures and traditions across the US, there was so much for the children to learn about and definitely challenged some of their preconceptions.

“We were able to incorporate some good educational tools into our teaching across the week, such as map reading and using atlases to locate major cities, rivers and landmarks.

“They also worked in their individual classes to create a large poster based around the information they collected and we are all very proud of the result.”