Elite gymnast Courtney Tulloch impressed youngsters at a Finsbury Park primary school by somersaulting over four teachers at a special assembly.

Courtney - who won gold in the rings and in the men's artistic team all-around, as well as silver in the vault at Australia's 2018 Commonwealth Games - visited Ambler Primary School for a special day themed on 'empathy'.

Leaders at the school in Blackstock Road considered Courtney would make a good role model to speak to the children about their school values, which are encapsulated in the acronym 'DREAMS'.

Until recently DREAMS stood for: 'Determination, resilience, enthusiasm, ambition, motivation and self belief'.

But the coronavirus pandemic prompted the school to swap 'enthusiasm' for 'empathy'.

Explaining the change, deputy head Sandeep McNicholl said: "Our ethos at Ambler is children can achieve more through the DREAMS qualities, but due to the recent pandemic and the effects on our school community and the wider world, after much discussion, we’ve changed the E from enthusiasm to empathy.

"We believe that this quality of being able to share someone else’s feelings and perspective is pivotal to a child’s development and their life skills."

The gymnast spoke about the qualities he had used to succeed as an athlete, and demonstrated his athletic prowess by somersaulting over four teachers who lay on the ground beneath him.

Ms McNicholl said: "It was a great event. Courtney was very inspirational.

"He talked to the children about his journey to being a gold winning gymnast – the children listened with such intensity.

"He talked about how he had failed so many times, how he was told he never would succeed and how he used the DREAMS qualities to achieve his goal.

"He certainly inspired so many children to take up gymnastics.

"We would welcome Courtney back with open arms."