Bacton Primary School near Stowmarket enjoys visit by Olympic champion gymnast Max Whitlock after winning competition

Children at a Suffolk school have been treated to a visit from six-time Olympic medal-winning gymnast Max Whitlock.

The sporting superstar visited Bacton Primary School, near Stowmarket, on Thursday, February 1, where he hosted a gymnastics class with Year 4 pupils before presenting an assembly for the whole school.

In the assembly, pupils got to ask questions of the Olympic champion before he performed some cartwheels and backflips to the delight of the children.

Max then passed around his three Olympic gold medals for pupils to see close-up.

He said: “It has been amazing to come to Bacton to meet all the pupils and staff. They’ve been so nice and welcoming here – and are really passionate about sport.

“Meeting pupils like this might inspire the next great British athlete, but that is not the priority.

“It’s more about inspiring the children to become more healthy, active and interested in sports. It is also about showing some of the boys they can do gymnastics too, that boys’ sport is not all about football.”

Bacton won the visit after parent Siobhan Smith entered a competition on the sportsman’s website.

“I don’t think I have ever been more excited than when I received the call saying we had won,” she said.

“For the children to meet someone who has been on an Olympic podium, and to see he is such a nice person and so down to earth, has been amazing.”

Head of school Sarah King said: “The children were jumping for joy about Max coming to the school – the excitement among the pupils had been building up to his visit all week.

“When Max entered the school hall for the assembly doing a handstand the children couldn’t stop cheering.

“They asked some really interesting questions about his career and how he got into gymnastics. I think he has definitely inspired some budding gymnasts at the school.”

Bacton Primary School is part of the John Milton Academy Trust.