Children at Godalming Junior School turned up to class on Thursday to find their lessons would be taken by a range of wild and wonderful fictional characters, including the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, a black cat, a pirate – and Hogwarts head Albus Dumbledore.

Equally, though the teachers found themselves giving lessons to a plethora of Harry Potters, fairies, Peter Pans and wizards.

The occasion was, of course, World Book Day, which the school went all out to celebrate, according to headteacher Adam Samson, aka Dumbledore.

"A lot of schools have postponed World Book Day until next week," Mr Samson told Godalming Nub News.

"But because we see every child online right through our day, and because we have about 50 children in school at the moment, we thought we might as well carry on as we would do normally. We are trying to keep some level of normality as far as possible."

Children and staff got into the spirit of the day, with "a lot of Harry Potters, Peter Pans, fairies and wizards," Mr Samson said.

"We do Zoom lessons, so the staff are doing those in costume, and the children have dressed up at home too.

"I am there most mornings when the children come in, and to see me in costume this morning put a smile on their faces.

"Obviously that's been our priority throughout this whole time, to maintain that sense of normality in school. Certain school events might be slightly altered, but it's really important that where possible we carry as we normally would."

And he said there was almost a party atmosphere at the school during the day: "There's a nice little celebration that all the children are coming back next week and the children know they will be seeing their friends again," he said.