A Hampstead Garden Suburb primary school, crowned chess champions of England, finished the academic year in style with a special performance of world-famous musical Les Miserables.

The under-11 A chess team at Garden Suburb Junior School won the English Primary Schools Chess Championships earlier this month, having been crowned Barnet champions in January.

Year 6 pupils at the school in Child’s Way also spent the last weeks of term rehearsing for their own version of classic musical Les Miserables, this year’s chosen end-of-year production.

Delighted parents saw two performances of the show at the school last week.

Headteacher Eileen Bhavsar said: “We have a lot of very talented children and that’s the reason we chose Les Miserables.

“We also have a very talented orchestra and it was a showcase of the musicians.

“The children were very engrossed in the performance and passionate about it. It’s not the most obvious choice for a primary school production but the kids have risen to the challenge.”

Promising artist Maria Shepard, 16, a former pupil at the school, returned recently for work experience and gave a hand to preparations, painting a number of posters to be used in the show.

Maria, now a pupil at Henrietta Barnett School in the Suburb, had a selection of her paintings showcased at The Society of Women Artists’ annual exhibition at The Mall Galleries in Westminster.