Campaign is helping tackle teaching crisis

Bradford Council committed to investing £660,000 on attracting teachers to the area over a three-year period and its latest initiative has seen the launch of an online recruitment campaign.

Ten local teachers have been chosen to be social media ambassadors to help promote the city outside the district and a new website has been created containing information on training and working in the area’s schools.

Sara Rawnsley, recruitment and retention strategy manager for Bradford, said the city was unique in that it was attempting to tackle the recruitment crisis, which is a problem nationally.

She said: “It has been a big brave move by the council to invest in this project over the last three years. This is the third year and there is evidence of it starting to pay off.

“We focussed initially on the primary sector and we have had an additional 200 teachers coming into this sector over the last two years.

“It is particularly drawing in people from training outside of Bradford through initiatives like bus tours and workshops.

“The whole idea is promoting the fact that you can have a great career in Bradford and actually make a difference to young people’s lives.”

In the 2015/2016 academic year, 58 per cent of primaries and 63 per cent of secondaries were facing recruitment issues due to smaller numbers of applicants, and a shortage of specialist teachers, particularly in the secondary sector in science, technology, engineering and maths, as well as English.

Mrs Rawnsley said: “There has been a negative image of Bradford historically whenever you see it in the national media. There is a negative connotation.

“But when people come here they see the children and see the schools and they say it’s great. It’s about challenging perceptions.

“It is both urban and rural, it has everything. It has different languages and cultures. It is diverse and a very exciting place to work. There is something for everybody.”

Involving schools across the district, the latest campaign, Bradford for Teaching, will see the 10 ambassadors share their stories on social media about the impact their work is having in order to continue to help promote the city at a national level. It follows successful bus tours, which saw teacher training students taken into Bradford schools to see the work they do for themselves. A Talent Bank has also been set up, which is used by school leaders to fill vacancies with the best suited candidates.