Pupils from Great Dunmow Primary School were thrilled to get the royal seal of approval last week when Her Majesty replied to a letter one class had sent about life in the classroom.

“We said what we’d been doing and stuff, and drew lots of pictures,” said eight-year-old Katie.

“She said that she was glad of knowing about what we did in Year 3. I didn’t really know if she’d write back.”

Teacher Louise Smith said the idea to write to the Queen had come from her own experience as a child.

“It was part of our literary topic, authors and letters, so we wanted to get them to write a letter, but we wanted it to be meaningful.

“When I was a child I drew a picture of Buckingham Palace and got a picture back from the Queen. I remember being so excited, and I thought it would be nice for them to have the same experience.”

“We were really impressed as we thought the Queen might be too busy. We thought it was kind of her to say in her letter of the achievements of which she was really proud,” she said.

Ms Smith added that another girl had written to the Queen about her pets and Buckingham Palace had replied, enclosing a leaflet about the Queen’s pets.