PARENTS of foreign students feel unsafe sending their children to an Oxford estate, one of the nation’s biggest language schools has revealed.

Every summer, EF teaches English to up to 5,000 students from across the world, who are drawn to Oxford’s academic heritage.

The classes are based at the Kassam Stadium, many children stay with host families in nearby Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys, who rent spare rooms to students during their stay.

However, some students have fallen victims to robberies, intimidation, racist abuse and name-calling during their stay in Oxford, sparking fears among parents, managers said.

Last summer, 10 young tourists and foreign students were targeted by robbers in the city – including five people in the Leys.

In one incident, an 18-year-old was forced to the ground in Blackbird Leys Road.

He had cash and his mobile phone stolen.

Christiane Lorenz, manager of EF Language Travel in Oxford, said parents had learned of the attacks and others were getting a bad impression of the estate after reading about the incidents on the Internet.

She told a meeting of police, city and county councillors last week that parents were telling sales managers not to place their children on the estate.

She said: “Blackbird Leys has had a bad reputation, but we have confidence in our host families and they are really doing a great job.

“However, some parents are scared of sending their children to the estate.

“It’s their welfare and safety they are concerned about.

“It has got better but the media attention doesn’t help because when they Google it they read old reports about the estate.

“We want to make the community aware of the language students.

“We had a student last year who was attacked twice in Blackbird Leys and his parents were quite good about it, but it’s a concern for us because we are liable for these things.”

She called on police to patrol a particular alleyway between Knight’s Road and the Kassam Stadium, at the beginning and the end of the day.

At the meeting EF, and Oxford colleges Embassy CES and Bellerbys College, and Eckersley Oxford, backed plans to improve relations between the estate and foreign students, with suggestions including a football match and stands at the Leys Fair.

Now city councillor Val Smith is drawing up a list of 10 of the estate’s positive points to send to colleges.

Fellow councillor Rae Humberstone called the meeting after reading in the Oxford Mail last year that the Oxford Language School admitted young female students were no longer sent to stay at homes in Blackbird Leys because of the attacks.

Rob Axe, Blackbird Leys Neighbourhood Sergeant, pledged to patrol troublespots, but called on the language schools to offer assistance too.

He said: “We are doing an awful lot of things behind the scenes in anticipation of the students coming over.

“We have already spoken with the colleges, we have been doing some training with the staff and we’ve got in place plans for extra patrols and extra resources.”