A drive to overcome negative views about Bradford and fill vacant teaching posts is showing signs of success.

The district had 192 teacher vacancies in Spring 2001. A year on, the number has fallen to 123.

A new unit, funded by the Teacher Training Agency and set up to help schools find the right people, has some remarkable success stories to tell.

A carefully-drafted advertisement for nine senior teaching posts at Bradford Cathedral Community College attracted 300 inquiries, even though the school is in Special Measures and last summer's GCSE results were among the country's worst.

Now all the vacancies have been filled for September.

Catherine Dean, recruitment strategy manager at Education Bradford, said: "Historically, that school has not been successful in recruiting, but we designed an advert for them which stressed positive features and explained what teachers could get out of it."

"If you can do it for a school with that sort of reputation, you should be able to do it for any school."

The advertisement did not seek to gloss over the East Bowling comprehensive's problems, but stressed the professional development opportunities it offered. Applicants who visited it were impressed with the new management team and convinced they would be working in a supportive environment, she said.

David Kershaw, the school's consultant head teacher, said: "These nine people are outstanding colleagues, including two who are internal appointments, who are relishing the opportunity of coming to work in an improving school with exciting plans."

Ms Dean said the recruitment team, which has been going for a year, also scored a success at a Keighley primary school which had been unable to recruit an assistant head for a year.

"Our role is to try to support schools in recruiting and retaining their teachers and help develop strategies," she said.

"We have been designing adverts to try to make it look attractive, and working with schools on their whole recruitment process - tweaking things here and there to try to make it as attractive to candidates as possible."

Ms Dean said major selling points of Bradford are the friendliness of its staff rooms and the area's low-cost accommodation.

"Cheap housing is one element, but when I go to schools and talk to teachers they can't speak highly enough of other members of staff," she said. "It's knowing that when you come out of the classroom, there's a lot of support there. We think the friendly environment in Bradford schools is a real strength."