The community work of the Watford Arabic School has received royal recognition.

Its founder, Dr Abdel Saleh, was presented the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award at a ceremony at the North Watford Mosque in Cambridge Road on Saturday.

The accolade recognises the school’s work in the town over the past three decades providing language studies and promoting cultural understanding.

The school was founded in 1983 and currently provides courses in Arabic and religious studies to around 70 students.

Dr Saleh said the award was a great achievement for the school, which is based in Watford Grammar School for Girls, and not one he had been expecting.

“I was in Egypt and it was only when I came back and went through my emails and calls I found this news. I was very, very surprised.”

Speaking after the award Dr Saleh, said as well as language studies the school has also played a role with helping people new to the country integrate and building bridges between different cultures.

At the ceremony Watford’s elected mayor, Dorothy Thornhill spoke in praise of the school, its achievements and its role in Watford.

A current pupil, nine-year-old Jude Heneidi, also read out a poem about her time at the school.

She said: “Our amazing school is strict, but fun and cool. Every week we try as hard as can be, we are all like one big family.”