REACH for the stars is a message we often give to young children, but it’s a bit easier when a man in a space suit comes to school.

Pupils at St Bartholomew’s Primary Academy in Royal Wootton Bassett had a visit from the Swindon-based UK Space Agency for a special assembly on Wednesday.

The children heard about Major Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station, the special suits he has to wear and the strange position he has to sit in on the journey from Earth.

They saw some of the food that astronauts eat and learnt how the body reacts to being in space – they even saw a live experiment showing them how combustion sends the rocket flying into orbit.

Deputy Head, Jen Wallace, said: “It was fascinating, the thing that really stood out for me was seeing the children turning to each other with those looks of surprise thinking wow, I can’t believe that’s happening.

“It was so inspiring for our children – pushing their aspirations is really important for us and we were really lucky to build on Tim’s mission in this way.”

The children all agreed that space sounded like a thoroughly fascinating experience but they were divided as to whether it is somewhere they would like to go themselves.

10-year-old Reuben was concerned that after spending six hours hunched over in a shuttle he might have trouble climbing out at the other end.

Despite this, his classmates all agreed that he was the one most likely to become an astronaut out of all of them.

All the children agreed, perhaps surprisingly, that they would happily swap their school dinners for space food – curry and M&M’s proving the popular favourites.

Tony Forsythe, Education and Skills Programme Manager at the UK Space Agency, said: “Working with Tim, we’ve put together over thirty school activity programmes which is unprecedented, no other country is doing what we’re doing.

“We’re really trying to breathe extra momentum into the STEM subjects and space has such an ability to mobilise all four of those into learning in schools.

“It’s one of those topics that has a real awe and wonder about it.”