Students will be waltzing up the red carpet next week, after their short film was nominated for a national award.

SSL, a film by pupils at Heathlands School for Deaf Children, was nominated in the Best Live Action (12 and under) category of the 2017 Into Film Awards.

Deborah Jones-Stevens, the school’s head teacher said: “The children cannot quite believe their amazing news and are excited to be attending the awards ceremony.

“This is the first film they have made and they continue to be enthused by the whole process.”

A group of the pupils will attend the awards, on Tuesday at the Odeon in Leicester Square, with the show presented by Virgin Radio’s Edith Bowman.

The film is about a police force called Stop Sign Language (SSL), who arrest a head teacher for teaching British Sign Language, insisting only speaking is allowed.

It was made by a group of Year 5 to Year 7 pupils under the direction of sign language filmmaking specialist Louis Neethling.

Mrs Jones-Stevens said: “They all had individual roles within the production team which they developed over the term and the cast of actors grew in confidence as they became more experienced.”

The Into Film awards are supported by the BFI through National Lottery money to promote filmmaking and film reviewing by five to 19 year-olds.