PE teacher James Russell has become part of #TeamTwenty in a bid to motivate the kids at his school to participate in sport.
The experienced teacher has worked at Titus Salt School l in Saltaire for over a decade now, and admits the school has a growing fan base of young Bantams supporters.
Mr Russell has decided to purchase two Bradford City season tickets for the 2017/2018 campaign, with the aim being to use them as an incentive for the children in his lessons to become more involved in sport.
James - pictured far left in the main article image - spoke to www.bradfordcityfc.co.uk about the new scheme.
He said: "We’re always looking for rewards and incentive for the pupils, mainly for their participation so then it encourages more participation in sport.
"We’ve got lots of boys and girls and we’ve got a lot of City fans at the school with obviously the school being local and we know that not all of them are able to attend matches regularly.
"We thought we’d link up with the club and introduce the rewards scheme; it not only encourages our pupils to participate in sport but it also is good for family time as well, with children going to the game with a parent or a carer.
"We decided to buy two season tickets from the club to use as the incentive for the pupils.
"It can only be a good thing, nothing bad can come of this scheme. It is only going to be a positive.
"In the P.E. department we have quite a few things going on in the rewards scheme, but we thought we’d introduce the Bradford City tickets as an added bonus and as an incentive for kids to take part really. We thought it would be a really nice idea for kids who perhaps live too far away or can’t make the games for whatever reason.
"We had to get the financial side of the project signed off by the head teacher and he was very supportive and very keen for the Bradford City tickets to be a reward for the pupils."
He added: "As a department we’re always looking for ways to encourage the children to take part in any sport. I’ve been at the school eleven years now, but over the last couple of years I’ve noticed more and more of the younger pupils celebrating about the likes of Charlie Wyke and Josh Cullen rather than Man United players or whoever it may be.
"There has been a big change in the mentality of the children and it is noticeable when we have non-uniform days that more and more of the pupils turn up in Bradford City shirts. It’s all positive.
"I think it’s important to support your local team. We still have quite a lot at the school who support the big teams in the country, the likes of Man United and Liverpool but there’s a lot here that are Bradford City fans.
"This reward may not count for a lot of them, because many of them go to the games already.
"Often the topic in the changing rooms amongst the pupils is what has happened at City over the weekend.
"We have rewards schemes in place now where by taking part the pupils go into draws to win prizes, but with this being a fortnightly thing the tickets will be awarded to any pupil who has stood out in a lesson, for a school team or even for improved behaviour or improved attitude.
"They can be awarded for a number of things, it’s not elitist where you have to play in the school football team or the school rugby team, it can be any boy or any girl. We meet weekly as a department and anyone who stands out for whatever reason, we’ll nominate to get the ticket for the week.
"You’d like to think other schools will see what we’re doing and look to replicate it. Bradford City is the local club to a lot of schools in the district and it would be good for the club to get the support of more schools. Football is something a lot of children are interested in and so is Bradford City, so I can’t see why it wouldn’t be a positive for any local school.
"The scheme will help raise the profile of P.E. within the school but it will also raise the profile of the club in the community. We’re going to help publicise the #TeamTwenty campaign within the school through the use of flyers and the club’s Twitter account. I think the scheme is helpful for everybody concerned."