Pupil power has won the day at a closing Bradford school -- and now "tracing paper" toilet roll has been replaced with luxury tissue.

Martin Caulfield, deputy head at Shipley's Wycliffe Church of England Middle School, proved a big softie when a pupil survey revealed harsh toilet paper was the children's biggest bugbear.

He spent £100 from tuck-shop profits on several hundred soft toilet rolls to mark Wycliffe's closure under the city's schools shake-up.

Now the final days at Wycliffe Middle -- due to close later this month with the Saltaire Road site absorbing a new primary school -- are being seen out in comfort by pupils and staff.

Headteacher David Hartley said: "It was an absolutely wonderful idea of Martin's because this harsh paper is something the kids have consistently brought up over the years.

"You need to have a laugh at this late stage in proceedings for the school and this certainly gave everybody one when it was announced in assembly-- especially when our head of French, Lesley Macpherson, presented Martin with his very own roll, complete with a W for Wycliffe on each sheet.

"Staff had to use the old paper too and I think harsh and abrasive were the words for it. But this new stuff's nice and soft and very civilised.''

Mr Hartley said some of the paper was likely to be left over as a legacy to the new set of pupils and teaching staff moving to the site when it becomes Wycliffe CE Primary School in Septembe.

He said: "I don't think we'll get through it all by the end of term.''

Mr Caulfield, who will be the new transition deputy head at Thornbury Primary, said: "The old toilet paper was bought in the first place because of budget restraints.

"I thought as we were closing it would be nice to give everyone an end-of-year treat and a little luxury for the last couple of weeks.

"I announced it in assembly and everyone was so pleased they gave me a round of applause.

"This might be something the children will remember for long years after the school closes and perhaps now I'll be remembered as the 'soft touch of Wycliffe'."

He added: "The survey was run by children from Year 8 as part of their lessons to find out pupils' opinions about school.

"One of the major recurring issues was the hard nature of the toilet paper they had to use -- it's been a persistent grumble for years and has actually been used as tracing paper in the past.''

Neil Nolan, 13, who helped carry out the survey with John Edwards, 12, said: "Nobody ever wanted to use the paper before but the new stuff's beautiful and soft.

"Quite a few people have been coming up to thank us for helping to highlight things.''