NEWLY qualified teachers could be given a reimbursement of their student loans if they chose to teach in Bradford’s schools.

The newly announced “Bradford Dividend” would see the offer made to teachers who have recently started working in a secondary or special school in the district, teaching science, languages and IT.

The ambitious plans would also see teachers given access to funding to train to become a school leader or headteacher, and access to courses to boost their teaching skills.

Funding for the scheme will come from a recent £11 million grant given to Bradford by the Department For Education after the district was named an “opportunity area.”

It is an attempt to get more new teachers choosing Bradford over other areas, seen as more attractive to teach in, retain staff and create a new generation of heads and school leaders.

The package of support is being launched today by the Bradford for Teaching recruitment campaign, which is being backed by Bradford Council.

The plans are currently in the early stages, and details of how much of the £11 million opportunity grant will be used to fund the dividend has not yet been revealed.

In recent years many schools across Bradford have struggled to recruit and retain teachers, and Bradford Council has trialled schemes such as giving trainee students bus tours around the district’s schools to encourage more people to choose to teach in Bradford.

Teachers will be able to apply for the reimbursement from September. Those who qualify for the scheme will be able to apply to reimburse student loan payments made in the first ten years of their careers. They have to be employed in a secondary or special school in Bradford and been awarded Qualified teacher status from between 2013/14 – 2018/19 and teach in languages, physics, chemistry, biology or computer science. They will be eligible for reimbursements for the ten academic years following the year they qualified. It will be dependent on the teacher’s salary, and they claim the reimbursement from the previous year.

Councillor Imran Khan, the Council’s Executive Member for Education, Employment and Skills said: “The launch of the Bradford Dividend helps us to demonstrate that we recognise the importance of teachers here in Bradford and we are going to invest in helping them to work here.

“This package of support and the brilliant Bradford for Teaching campaign will help us to get the message out that if you are passionate about teaching and making a real difference to children’s lives then Bradford is the place for you.”

Michael Jameson, Bradford Council’s Strategic Director for Children’s Services said: “The Bradford Dividend offers both financial and professional support to teachers in our district. The work of the Bradford for Teaching campaign and the support of the Opportunity Area programme will help us to ensure teachers in the district school feel well supported and valued.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, welcomed the idea and told the Telegraph & Argus: “Our Leaky Pipeline report showed that teacher recruitment is in crisis. We do need to see more work being done to attract and retain people who want to become teachers and school leaders. On a good day, there’s no better profession to be in.

“The recruitment pipeline is leaking at both ends. Currently, too few graduates choose teaching as a career and too many experienced teachers leave the profession prematurely. All too often recruitment efforts fail to produce enough high quality candidates. The main reasons given to explain why schools struggled to recruit included the quality of applicants in the area and an overall shortage of staff in the area.”

Ian Murch, Bradford spokesman of the National Education Union, said: “Targeted ways of addressing teacher shortages in Bradford do have some effect. They don’t necessarily increase the number of teachers available, but they may sway someone who is thinking whether they will go to teach in Bradford or Leeds.

“Things like this have been tried before, and they may have a bit of an effect, but I don’t think they’ll have a huge effect. We really need to look at teacher retention. The main problem is that teachers are not staying in their jobs.”

Debbie Davies, COnservative spokesman for education on the Council, said: "I'd like to see a bit more detail, but it is a positive idea that will hopefully encourage people to teach here.

"Teacher recruitment is a big issue and some schools have a massive turnaround of staff so something like this makes sense.

"Any new initiative that encourages teachers to come to Bradford is worth trying."