Bradford has twice as many teachers coming up to retirement age as the national average.

Half of the district's teachers are aged 50 and over, according to new figures.

Across the country, only 25 per cent are in this age group.

And as the average age of teacher retirement in Bradford is 55, large numbers of experienced staff could vanish from classrooms by 2007.

The prospect of a teacher recruitment crisis has prompted experts to draw up contingency plans.

Now Education Bradford is launching a campaign to recruit young teachers to the area and to keep existing staff happy and motivated.

A report by the privatised education authority concludes that the current level of vacancies in Bradford schools is lower than a year ago.

But many schools report having to rely on supply teachers regularly and there are fears this is harming children's education.

A report by Education Bradford to the Education Policy Partnership says: "Considerable concern is being expressed by many schools at the frequency with which they need to engage supply teachers and the variable quality of the arrangements they can make.

Where supply is being used to cover for a teacher shortage, the impact of a number of short-term supply arrangements can be very detrimental to schools' efforts to raise standards."

Ideas to improve teacher recruitment include, in the short term:

l Wider use of existing Government initiatives such as the Welcome Back Bonus, and Recruitment and Retention allowance

l Sharing best practice amongst schools

l Changing pupil behaviour, workload and levels of support and offering extra training for professional development In the medium term, a marketing strategy will be devised to highlight the unique opportunities Bradford schools have to offer and a website will be set up to allow teachers to support each other and do online training.

In the long term, the aim is to encourage Bradford people to become teachers both as college leavers and older career-switchers.

Newly Qualified Teachers will be targeted to both train and stay in Bradford through "an enticing package of financial and non-financial incentives".

Education officials will investigate flexible working practices such as family friendly policies, smaller class sizes and greater administrative support to help teachers gain a better work/life balance.