Pocklington Prep school pupils are “buzzing” after former pupil Kyle Edmund responded to their teacher’s tweet and photo of their writing exercise about him.

The British No 2 homed in on a comment from one of the Year 4 pupils who said: “I think Kyle looks like Ed Sheeran but can’t sing like him.”

Within minutes, Kyle replied: “Thank you to all the pupils who have been working hard to make these, it’s so nice to read:) and yes I agree I can’t sing like Ed Sheeran haha”.

The Year 4 class teacher Lizzie Kennedy said she was amazed and touched that Kyle, who only last Thursday competed in the Semi Final of the Australian Open in Melbourne, took the time to read the tweet and reply.

She said: “I finished the display of the pupils’ work only this morning and tweeted Kyle one of the examples. I couldn’t believe it when he replied immediately. The pupils arrived at school soon after and were so excited, too.

“Every time we look, Kyle’s reply has got more likes and retweets. The pupils can’t believe their writing exercise has got so much attention. They’re all still absolutely buzzing!”

Mrs Kennedy hit on the idea of writing about Kyle Edmund to liven up an English lesson about connectives. She said: “It was the day after the school had all supported Kyle as he competed in the Australian Open semi-final, and he was still very much on their minds.

“I might have expected them to switch off from concentrating on a technical aspect of writing after all that excitement, so I suggested they used connectives to describe Kyle. They’re so impressed and proud of him as a former pupil, they didn’t find it hard at all.

“We used the tennis racket head as a template to write inside - and they came up with such wonderful sentences I decided to share some with Kyle himself. I really didn’t expect him to reply and when he did it made everyone’s day!”

Kyle, 23, attended Pocklington Prep School between 2002 and 2006. He has retained a connection with the school and returned to show pupils a replica Davis Cup trophy after he was part of the Davis Cup-winning British team in 2015.