Barnsley Football Club midfielder Mike Bähre gave up his time to surprise pupils at Burton Road Primary School by paying them a visit during a school day.

Mike was introduced to the pupils, who were then able to talk to some of their favourite players as well as carrying out a question and answer assembly.

During the pupils’ break-time, the 23-year-old was also able to interact and join in with the pupils by playing football and taking part in other activities.

The visit began at 2pm, where Mike observed the end of a PE lesson delivered by Reds in the Community Senior Community Coach Gareth Cooke as part of the Premier League Primary Stars programme.

He then joined in with the pupils during their afternoon break, playing football and signing autographs for the excited children.

Mike then took part in a question & answer assembly, giving an insight into his own professional career as well as life at Oakwell since moving to England last Summer.

German midfielder Mike, who had already taken part in two other visits with RitC earlier in the year, spoke about how much he enjoyed the afternoon.

He said: “I really enjoyed it. I remember when I was a kid and when I heard about a professional footballer visiting I couldn’t sleep the night before. It’s a nice feeling. I enjoyed everything we did so far. I did another Primary School before, we went to the hospital – everything we did has been nice. I can remember when I was a kid, I had so many questions but I was too shy to ask the questions to the guys. I really enjoyed to answer the questions from the kids. I don’t think they really know how it is to be a professional and what you have to do to be a professional footballer. It’s a good feeling for me and for the kids as well.”

Burton Road are one of many local schools who partake in the Primary Stars programme, a scheme which helps to promote education through the pull of professional football clubs and sport.

Michael Woodhall, Sports Coach at the School spoke about the benefits of the programme including tournaments at Oakwell such as the one on Monday.

He said: “It’s going really well. The kids have loved it. It’s been fun and engaging. They’ve learnt lots of new skills and lots of respect lessons which have really helped. Gaz has a really good relationship with the children which has helped their skills develop a lot faster than anticipated. Gaz is a very laid back coach, he’s very approachable and the children like him which I think is key.

“Not just myself, a few of our staff have managed to get in on the lessons and picked up some new ideas from Gaz. It’s things to just freshen up our own PE lessons which is good. We’ve been along to two of the tournaments now. I wasn’t able to go to the Key Stage One tournament but the staff feedback has been fantastic.”