Thurlow Primary School, near Haverhill, gets help from internet star @thep00lguy to fix up and reopen its swimming pool

A village school in Suffolk has received help in its quest to restore its swimming pool to a usable condition from an internet sensation who has more than 13 million followers on social media.

Thep00lguy, real name Miles Laflin, stepped in to offer his time and services for free to help Thurlow Primary School, near Haverhill, get its pool back into service after two years of disuse because of the Covid pandemic.

The pool is used by pupils in Reception and Years 1 and 2 at Thurlow and Hundon Primary Schools, which are in the same federation – and yesterday Mr Laflin was there to officially reopen it.

Mr Laflin, from Ampthill in Bedfordshire, has 12.9 million followers on TikTok alone, and has 234,000 followers on Instagram and 561,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, where viewers can see him at work cleaning swimming pools.

Needing the pool, which goes back to the 1960s, back in use this summer, Thurlow Primary School teacher Katrina Feakes reached out to thep00lguy by email, asking him if he could help to make that happen.

He replied and, after visiting the school to meet staff and pupils and see what needed to be done, he agreed to help.

During February and March he and his team made numerous visits to clean and service the pool, the heat pump and train the school’s caretaker how to maintain the pool.

Sharon FitzGerald, headteacher at Hundon and Thurlow Primary Federation, said: “It (the pool) had all manner of creatures in there, so it was not looking inviting in the slightest.

“We talked to him and said ‘this is going to cost quite a significant amount of money for us to be able to bring it back to life’ and he he offered his services for free. He came to the school and he met some of the children and the children said what it means to them and why it was important that he helped.”

Mrs FitzGerald, who said swimming was ‘really important’ to the federation, added: “I think we would have struggled (to get the pool open again) without him intervening and coming along to help.

“He has been a bit of a hero really.”

Mr Laflin, who paid for the work himself, said: “We went and had a look at the pool and I thought, it’s not a massive issue. I can get this sorted.

“We got the job done.

“When we were there they were explaining how important it is for kids to be learning how to swim and we thought it was quite important as well, so that’s why we decided to help out.”