BRADFORD finds it difficult to attract the teaching staff it needs - and those who have a choice would rather teach in neighbouring areas, a Bradford teaching union chief claimed.

He made the admission as Department for Education figures revealed the city is struggling to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels of attainment.

In 2023-24, 4,655 of 7,970 key stage two pupils (58 per cent) in Bradford met the expected standard for reading, writing and maths in 2023-24.

While this was an increase from 57 per cent the year before, it was down from 63 per cent in 2018-19, before the pandemic.

Just 47 per cent of disadvantaged pupils met the required standard – down from 52 per cent five years ago.

Bradford Council said it has “ambitions to do better” and it wants to speed up the improvement process.

Speaking about the figures, Tom Bright, Bradford branch secretary of the National Education Union, told the Telegraph & Argus: “I think Bradford has the slightly higher levels of deprivation and poverty compared with the national picture so if child poverty and deprivation is a factor, you’d expect it to impact Bradford more than it would impact the rest of the country.

“And we are seeing that. And sadly, where teachers have a choice, they would choose to teach in neighbouring local authorities rather than in Bradford. 

“If you do want to improve the educational outcomes for children in Bradford, we’ve got to get rid of this competitive market forces-style approach. At the moment, school A is trying to attract teachers from school B. 

“That isn’t helping educational outcomes. What we want is young people to have a great experience of school so that they become great members of society. 

“That’s such a difficult thing to do because at the moment you have the process of children who are being pressurised at year two because that’s the first level of testing. At year two SATs, a child is labelled a failure if they are not at age-related expectations. 

“And if there isn’t money then to support those children, it’s the disadvantaged children that get left behind.”

He added: “Bradford suffers more than the neighbouring localities – not because there is anything wrong with Bradford but because of the reputation. Bradford finds it more difficult to attract the staff that it needs.”

“But Bradford has got great access to the Pennines, to the Yorkshire Dales...it's a great place to be and it’s a relatively cheap place to live.”

Mr Bright said that some academy trusts are trying to become employers of choice by offering some softer benefits.

But the issue of staffing was about quality as well as quantity, he said.

“The average pay of a teacher in Bradford is £2,000 less than the national average so that suggests that the level of experience of the teachers in Bradford is less than the national average.

“For every school that has highly qualified experienced teachers, you have this constant churn of younger people coming through.”

Mr Bright said that while some Bradford schools struggled to recruit and retain staff, others were doing well.

“There are some really good schools in Bradford where there is consistency of leadership, and consistency of the approaches to the children’s behaviour and discipline and development, and responses to special needs. 

“There are some really good schools but there are also some schools where there has been churn in leadership, churn in staffing, churn in the local community, and that’s not helpful. 

“But Government can’t fix that. You can’t even throw money at it to fix it. Because it’s a whole ethos thing of saying fundamentally, what is education about and how do we get to the right outcomes for everybody? It’s not all about exams.”

Councillor Sue Duffy, Bradford Council's executive member for children and families welcomed the rise in key stage two pupils meeting the expected standard and said: “It is always good to see improvement but of course we have ambitions to do better.”

She added: “While the signs are encouraging, we want to speed up the improvement process and we continue to work to support our hard-working schools to make sure every child has access to the best possible education."

Across England, 61 per cent of pupils in key stage two were up to the requirements, slightly up from 60 per cent, the previous year. However, attainment remained below pre-pandemic levels, when 65 per cent met the standard.

Meanwhile, 45 per cent of disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths in the past academic year – down from 51 per cent in 2018-19. 

School standards minister Catherine McKinnell said inequality was still negatively influencing young people’s outcomes, and the Government was “committed to breaking down the barriers to opportunity”.

It is also planning a “curriculum review”, which it hopes will drive up standards.

She added: "We will introduce free breakfast clubs and increased mental health support to give every young person, whatever their background, the best possible start in life.”