People in teaching jobs in Camden could soon be seeing a lot more of their pupils' parents after the area was named as one of the urban centres to receive funding to set up a parenting academy.

Some parents in Camden and Middlesborough will be paid around £600 to attend 18 sessions in the trial to learn how to support their children's schoolwork. It is a pilot scheme that wants to test whether cash rewards can help encourage parents to get involved with their children's learning.

It is being funded by £1 million from the Education Endowment Foundation and will run in 14 primary schools across the two regions. Around 1,500 parents and carers will be randomly divided into three groups, with one group receiving free childcare and meals, another being given the cash and a third control group not attending the sessions.

After the series of 90-minute-long workshops, the attitudes and abilities of all the children with be assessed and compared to scores taken at the start of the project.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the BBC parental engagement should be viewed as an important part of education, but he feared that this scheme may be seen by some as tantamount to bribing parents to get involved.

"We need to look at different ways of helping parents engage in their children's learning, but I have reservations about simply paying them," said Mr Lightman.

He explained that cash could be a useful incentive if it was to be used to reimburse parents who have taken time off from their jobs to attend the academy.

The idea is based on a US project and only wants to test whether it can prove to be value for money in the UK when it gets underway next September.

As a teacher or somebody looking for a primary teaching job, how do you think parental engagement could be improved?