A CLUSTER of Blackbird Leys schools have blamed costly house prices for a struggle to staff their classrooms.

Three primary schools on the estate have added impetus to the teacher recruitment crisis, claiming living costs in Oxford repel potential candidates and push current employees away.

Blackbird Academy Trust, which oversees 1,059 pupils collectively at Windale, Pegasus and Orchard Meadow primary schools, cited the issue as a key concern.

Its annual report, published in December, said: "Recruitment of teachers continues to cause significant challenges.

"House prices in Oxford are very high, making teaching here less affordable.

"As a consequence, many of our teachers are newly qualified teachers (NQTs) or overseas teachers, which places high demand on training.

"[This] can impact the speed [of] improvements."

In October an Oxford-based National Education Union representative told the Oxford Mail teacher recruitment was at an 'all-time low'.

The trust's schools are not currently advertising vacancies, but the average number of teachers it employed fell from 65 in 2016 to 61 in 2017.

The report, covering the financial year ending August 2017, added: "A high turnover of staff, staff absence, staff retention and teacher shortage [led to] the consequent high level of spend on agency staff and recruitment fees."

It also noted, however, that the multi-academy trust has made improvements in its continuing efforts to ramp up standards, including instating new headteachers at Orchard Meadow and Windale.

Last year both schools got out of special measures - a term applied by Ofsted to schools of concern - and improved from the watchdog's worst 'inadequate' rating to 'requires improvement'.

Pegasus School, the largest of the trio with 491 pupils, was rated 'good' in 2016.

The trust also improved its finances last year, increasing reserve funds despite a dip in pupil numbers, and consequent funding reduction.

Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds said: "Problems mentioned in Blackbird Academy Trust's report are all too evident in Oxford East.

"Our house prices are amongst the least affordable in the country.

"That makes the city far less attractive to teachers and headteachers, as well as to other public servants.

"We have many excellent teachers and headteachers in Oxford East, but we have to acknowledge the high cost of living here places an even greater premium on their commitment to serving our children and young people."

She called for the Government to take 'urgent action' to help slash house prices.

New national figures released by UCAS revealed the number of people who applied for teacher training courses plummeted by 33 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016.

The Department for Education, however, insists there is a 'record number' of teachers in schools nationally.

Blackbird Academy Trust's report stressed steps had been taken to ensure pupils' education was not jeopardised by staffing turbulence, including robust support to ensure NQTs 'thrive'.