Primary school teachers should receive a £10,000 “golden handcuffs” payment for working in the worst primary schools, a leading charity says.

A report by the Sutton Trust, a charity that tackles educational disparity, said that the Teach First scheme, which brings top graduates into teaching in secondary schools for two years, should be extended to primary schools, which risked being the “poorer cousins” of the sector.

And more should be done to encourage men to teach in primary schools.

“There has been too little systematic attention paid to these formative years of a child’s development,” the report said.

The profile of primary teaching needed to change so that it was “not only a strong career option for new graduates but is something that the highest calibre graduates and professionals consider for at least part of their working lives”.

It added: “We need more men to become primary teachers. Only 16 per cent of primary teachers are male. Yet many boys, whose results are poorer than girls, say they would work harder and behave better if they had more male teachers.

“An important reason why primary teaching may not be as attractive as secondary teaching is not only that it pays less, particularly in leadership positions, but that it is perceived as having a less challenging career structure.”

Financial incentives, such as one-off payments to new teachers in secondary schools, should be extended to primaries in disadvantaged areas.

The report criticised advertisements for recruits to teaching for overemphasising the salary and underplaying the challenges teachers faced.

It said: “Emphasising the challenges of the job, and the skills they foster, would raise the status of teaching and attract the kind of applicant who is willing to meet those challenges. Advertising shouldn’t hide the challenges.”

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