Dwayne Johnson surprises Sudbury schoolchildren during London Moana event

About 50 pupils from St Gregory CEVC Primary School in Sudbury got more than a school outing when Dwayne Johnson met them at the Moana Experience in Potters Field Park, London, on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. The Years 3 and 4 children had travelled from the Suffolk primary school expecting a standard trip, but the day turned into a personal encounter with the actor who plays Maui in Disney’s live-action Moana adaptation.

The surprise was the latest step in a chain that began with a school video posted in May 2026. Headteacher Daniel Woodrow said the post was made “for a bit of fun” because the pupils were excited about Moana, but it quickly spread online, drawing millions of views and thousands of comments. Johnson answered with a recorded message promising to hire a cinema for the children and their families and to provide popcorn, soda and sweets so they could watch the film together.

When the London visit unfolded, staff and pupils had no warning that Johnson would be there in person. The reaction was immediate, with cheering, clapping, laughter and what the school described as a burst of excitement from children who had not been told the meeting was coming. Johnson said the pupils were “losing their minds and going bonkers and going crazy,” and said the moment showed why these encounters carry such force for children.

St Gregory CEVC Primary School is a Church of England voluntary controlled primary school on Church Street in Sudbury, Suffolk, and its published contact details list Mr Daniel Woodrow as headteacher. The school’s website identifies Year 3 as Willow Class and Year 4 as Beech Class, the groups that made up the London trip. For those children, a routine visit to an immersive film event became a direct brush with a star whose name had already filled their screens for weeks.

The school later said it felt “really lucky and blessed” to have been chosen for the opportunity. In a media age where a classroom video can move from a local joke to a national moment in days, the Sudbury pupils’ surprise meeting showed how quickly social media, school trips and celebrity access can now collide in a child’s life.