A headteacher is hoping England football star Marcus Rashford may make an appearance at the year six leavers' assembly after retweeting a post about the school.

The Manchester United striker shared a post by Sarah White, headteacher of Coates Lane Primary in Barnoldswick, who tweeted about giving her year six leavers a copy of his book You Are A Champion.

Replying to the headteacher on Twitter, Rashford said: "Love this, best of luck Year 6. Remember, no one journey is the same, go out and make it your own."

The headteacher has passed the message back to the year six pupils who are elated about being noticed by the professional striker.

Sarah said: "We were absolutely thrilled to see that Marcus Rashford retweeted our post.

"We know how busy he must be preparing for the Euros and appreciate the time he took to write our pupils a personal message of inspiration.

"We are a reading school so it was an obvious choice to buy our children a book each as a leaving gift for the end of year six."

The striker has been an advocate for child poverty during the pandemic, writing to the Government to push them into providing free school meals for children during lockdown and through the summer holidays.

The books will be presented to the children in their leavers' assembly next month - with Mrs White hopeful that Marcus may come to the ceremony himself to give them out.

Sarah continued: "I’d read the book myself and thought the messages of self-worth, drive and determination were a perfect message for our pupils as they move onto the next stage in their lives.

"We encourage every child to become a reader and we are sure that they will all love receiving this special book at their leavers’ presentation in July – we are secretly hoping that Mr Rashford might even come along to present them to the children.

"What a memory that would be for them after the last 18 months of upheaval and missed opportunities for our eldest pupils!"