GEORGE Sampson returned to his old school on Thursday to present prizes at the class of 2019 presentation evening.

The dancer and actor won Britain's Got Talent when he was still a student at Birchwood High School back in 2008.

And he headed back to celebrate the successes of last year's youngsters and present some awards and certificates.

A spokesman for Birchwood High said: "George’s message was to follow your dream and despite anything, work hard and strive for what you want in life. As he says, 'Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain'.

"Great words of advice which I hope will be a real inspiration to our visitors.

"A big thank you to George for taking time out of his busy schedule to revisit his roots, we hope he enjoyed it and it brought back some good memories. Thanks, must also go to our visitors for attending, it was a lovely evening and a chance to really celebrate, for one last time the class of 2019 and all their achievements."

Shortly after winning the ITV talent show, George starred in hip-hop musical Into the Hoodz and was then scouted to star and play Eddie in feature films Streetdance 3D and StreetDance 2.

He then turned to acting to appear in BBC drama Waterloo Road and secured four series as school bad boy Kyle Stack, before joining the cast of Sky 1 comedy Mount Pleasant, playing Gary. He then joining Emmerdale in 2016, playing Ryan, local bad boy.

After a successful period on screen, he returned to the stage and at the end of 2017 toured the country starring in the Madness musical Our House for six months playing Reecey.

He is set to head off on tour again in January after a stint in panto, where he will tour the UK and the Netherlands until September 2020 in a hit musical.