Footballer inspires pupils on World Book Day
BBCPupils at a primary school in Telford are aiming to break five world records as part of celebrations for World Book Day.
Across the county, thousands of children are dressing up as their favourite character from a book, but this year the Lantern Academy has taken inspiration from Guinness World Records.
Children at the school in Ketley Bank were visited by record-breaking freestyle footballer Ash Randall, who holds the record for juggling a ball while on the roof of a moving car.
Randall, who gave a talk to the children and showed off some football tricks, said he had broken 25 world records in the past few years.
Challenges for which the children are aiming include stretching the chewy chocolate Curly Wurly the furthest.
Pupils are also trying to achieve the most skips in a skipping challenge, land the most bottle flips in a minute, build the biggest jelly tower and keep two balloons in the air for the longest time using only their heads.
Head teacher Michelle Skidmore said: "We're doing something a little bit different for World Book Day and we're focusing on the World Guinness Book of Records and trying to break some."
Randall said he was sharing his secrets for success to help the pupils achieve their goals.
He said: "I have been practising freestyle football for about 20 years, so I kind of discovered a few skills I was pretty good at and ones I wanted to get good at, so I just trained really hard, persevered and tried to break world records."
It could take weeks or months to get to the record-breaking stage, he added.
"Hopefully, [the children] can take a little bit of inspiration from the assembly and the messages I put out to them and fingers crossed, they might get a world record themselves here."
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