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How do I get a player to visit my school?

Having a player talk to you about why they love reading will be incredibly inspiring and motivating for a football-loving reluctant reader. Players do visit schools, but there are some key things to bear in mind to increase your chances of success.

Write to your local club. If you live in Epsom, there is no point in writing to Sir Alex Ferguson to see if he will release Rio Ferdinand for the day.

Contact the appropriate person at the club. This can be difficult as the position responsible for player appearances is likely to vary from club to club. It is best to ring the switchboard and ask to be put through to someone responsible for community work (check for a list of clubs and their contact details). Your next port of call could be the Playing for Success centre manager, the Football in the Community team, or even the press/marketing department.

All football players do some form of community work; it is part of the services that clubs offer to their local area.

Ask for a player that is a reader, rather than just the most famous person at the club. That said, sometimes they can be one and the same.

Don't listen to people who tell you that footballers don't read; there is always at least one keen reader in every first team. As proof, we currently have almost 100 Reading Champions from the world of professional football. If your club has a Champion they might be a good person to ask to come along. Find out if there is one at your club.

Timing is important, so look at the fixture lists. Don't ask the player to come on the day when they have a mid-week game. Also consider that they will rarely be available on a morning - they should be able to get to you for about 2 pm - remember that the training ground in most clubs' cases is a distance from the football ground - both of which may be a fair way from the player's home. Thursday is often a good day, but in general it is best to go with whatever you are offered.

Injured (or banned!) players are more likely to be available.

Some managers can be reluctant to release their players for these kinds of duties. They are after all first and foremost footballers. However, there is plenty of inspiration that the club could still provide - ask about stadium tours, or if your class can visit the Study Support Centre.

All Premiership and Championship clubs have footballing academies, or centres of excellence - you could ask if any of the students who attend these would be willing to visit the school. Although young, these players can be the future of the club, and are often close in age to the young people that you are hoping to inspire. They are immediately revered as this is who you want to be if you want to become a professional footballer. Academy students (who used to be called apprentices) still attend college, often studying to at least 'A' level qualifications.

Consider other alternatives. Football in the Community coaches often make excellent role-models. They are used to working with children, and use reading and writing as part of their everyday work. They are badged by the club, are often ex-professionals themselves, and, like the academy students, will be by revered by the young people just by virtue of their being associated with football.

There are lots of careers at football clubs - why not ask the physio or club doctor to come and talk to your group?

Be realistic about what you ask your visitors to do. A 16 year-old academy player is very unlikely to want to be put in front of a whole-school assembly, but may be happy to take part in a small-group question and answer session. Ask the club to ask the players what they are happy to do - you might like to send across some prepared questions that your group is likely to ask.

Remember that just because your player may be bold on the pitch, they may be shy in a classroom; don't ask them to do something that might put them off coming.

If you want to invite the local press make sure that you have agreed this with the club first. If they do come, brief them carefully: don't let them take over the session and question the player about any latest rumours about them or the club - this session is for your young people.

Give them a public thank-you - a gift (such as a book) will be very well received.

There are alternatives to visits - you may be able to set-up a live 'chat' via email, or perhaps ask them to do a video message.

If you do secure an agreement from a player or their club for a visit, do not tell your students until they have arrived. Unforeseen circumstances occur all the time in football, so don't build up your group as the player may have a genuine reason to pull out at the very last minute. This can be due to changes in training schedules or fixtures and may not be the player's fault.

Good luck! If you have other tips about making player visits successful please let us know.

Lancashire
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School. "In order to inspire boys to write, we invited our local football clubs to send in a representative that we could interview [for our newsletter]. Students gave a brief outline of the importance of our local teams and the best were then invited to interview the Chief Executive of Burnley FC, players from Bury FC and coaching staff from Liverpool FC. The project focused on boys who did not see a purpose for their writing. By focusing on one of the most popular male activities boys who were not usually attracted to writing for the paper were now very eager to participate. How successful? The number of boys writing for the paper went up seven-fold. The finished articles were included in the paper which was a complete sell out. The proceeds from which were donated to school to help with our fundraising for new sports facilities. Our activities were also featured in the local press.

Norfolk
In their school library, Blythjex High School in Norwich showed World Cup matches at lunchtimes, made a display of football fiction, non-fiction, a big display of results and posters with footballers reading. They also held competitions to identify 20 players and their countries and to design a strip or a mascot. A range of prizes was offered, from book vouchers to an England Football (signed by an author), to packets of crisps.

Staffordshire
In Staffordshire James Brindley High School asked Years 7 & 8 to write book reviews for members of the England Squad. This gave students an opportunity to suggest their favourite reads to Becks and Rio, and to tell them what is so good about them. They then put screensavers up saying: "Becks should read."

Malta
"St Patrick's School takes boys aged 8 and upwards. It delivers both a mainstream and remedial curriculum. It also has a residential care home. The school has just started a 6 months pilot project for under achieving boys based totally on football. The name of the club is 'Johnny Bosco's Learning Club' (JBLC), named after the founder of the Salesian Order. The boys are called players, our learning support volunteers are coaches and as teacher in charge I am known as the referee. We deliver our alternative football curriculum in a very large room which has striped curtains - black and white for Juventus, red and white for Man u and black and yellow for a local club. The boys attend the club dressed in their football gear for 6 hours a week. At the moment we are concentrating on improving their English. A lesson based on colours enabled the boys to design their own team strip, a lesson on body parts included labelling our football mascot, Each session the players can earn 2 goals and I also award a ref's goal for special work. Once they have earned 10 goals which are recorded on a goal mouth they can trade these in for a player which they then colour in their own team strip. The object being to collect a team plus officials. This is a real motivator. Each boy has their own pitch made from green card on which they position the players they have earned. We also operate yellow/red card procedure but haven't yet had to use it!

"This week we started the JBLC grammar league and had teams of nouns, adjectives and verbs."