A weenie Winston Churchill and a junior Joan of Arc were joined by influential people from history to take over a local school for the day.

Don’t worry the famous figures haven’t been shrunk and discovered how to time travel, instead pupils from Forest School, in Snaresbrook, dressed up as a variety of history’s most influential men and women to mark the start of their new topic - famous faces from the past.

The year one and two pupils researched famous people who were inspirational and influenced the course of history during the Christmas break and shared facts about their chosen figure with their classmates.

The pre-prep pupils dressed as William Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale and Neil Armstrong to name a few of the icons present on the day.

Today’s heroes were not forgotten either as pupils from reception joined in the fun by dressing up as nurses, doctors and fire fighters.

Mr Paul Faulkner, master in charge of the school’s pre-prep, said: “It was a brilliant morning with all the children getting very involved. It was great to see historic figures from Winston Churchill to Princess Diana.

“Each of the pupils shared interesting facts about their famous person while learning about others.”