Graduates entering the teaching profession should be encouraged to work in challenging primary schools by being given bigger salaries and £10,000 "golden handcuff" deals, a study has urged.

According to the Sutton Trust report, primary teaching is arguably more important to children`s development than secondary teaching, yet is traditionally seen as the "poor relation".

The report calls for more top graduates to be attracted into the profession, and says it is vital to boost the profile of primary teaching.

"There has been too little systematic attention paid to these formative years of a child's development," the report says.

"And while there are a number of exciting initiatives to attract the brightest and the best to teach in our secondary schools, primary schools and their teachers risk being treated as the poorer cousins of the sector."

"Golden hello" payments worth up to £10,000 are already being offered to the best graduates to join the most deprived secondary schools, but the report wants this initiative - and others - extended to primaries.

The study also found a wide gap in salaries between primary staff and their secondary colleagues, with a primary school teacher earning an average of £30,400 a year compared with £33,400 in secondaries.