CHILDREN could be left struggling in bigger classes with inexperienced teachers due to a mounting recruitment crisis.

Education experts said the number of teachers applying for jobs in Oxfordshire is at an 'all-time low', with the high-cost of living driving existing staff away and preventing talented, newly qualified teachers taking up jobs here.

If the crisis continues, there are fears it will mean teachers will be drafted in to cover subjects they do not normally teach, and force schools to increase class sizes.

National Education Union representative Ed Finch, a teacher at Larkrise Primary School in East Oxford, said: "Recruitment is at an all-time low.

"Oxford as a city is just so expensive. You go into teaching because it is a great thing to do but you also have to be able to survive and pay the rent.

"“As a parent myself I want to know my child is being taught by someone who loves their subject.

“But without enough teachers, the jobs will have to be covered by teachers of other subjects.

“They will do their best but it puts more stress on teachers and we are not going to get the quality we want for our young people."

Statistics collected by teacher vacancy website TeachVac showed a rise in the number of jobs advertised in Oxfordshire schools in the past year.

The figures reveal at least 386 jobs were advertised by the county's state and private secondary schools from January until mid October, compared to 353 in the same period last year.

Posts for PE teachers shot up by 93 per cent from 15 to 29, and by 85 per cent for geography, from 13 to 24.

County councillor and education expert Professor John Howson, chairman of TeachVac, said: "2018 is going to be much more challenging. Its the eye of the storm in teacher recruitment."

Prof Howson echoed widely-shared concerns that expensive living costs in Oxfordshire repel key workers such as teachers from the area, adding: "Our other problem is that we've got almost as many secondary independent schools as state schools.

"We are competing for teachers; that's an added pressure."

TeachVac began collecting state primary school recruitment statistics in spring this year, which show there have so far been 217 classroom teacher posts advertised in Oxfordshire.

National research suggests secondary schools are particularly struggling with recruitment compared to primaries and nurseries.

It is estimated there will be an extra 11,000 pupils in Oxfordshire's schools by next September compared to September 2013.

Layla Moran, education spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said the recruitment crisis was 'getting worse'.

The Oxford West and Abingdon MP, a governor at Botley School, said: "At Botley our biggest issue is retaining staff, due to the cost of living locally. It's not just teachers, it's teaching assistants too.

"A lot of young teachers come to Oxfordshire to train, stay for the first couple of years and leave because of the cost of living."

Ms Moran warned rising pupil numbers would prompt 'bigger class sizes and teachers who aren't expert in the subject.

Last year the county council's education scrutiny committee recommended the authority should set up talks with housing associations.

Councillors suggested land could be sold to them at knock-down prices on the condition they built homes for teachers with rents below market rates.

Addressing the committee at that time, Wheatley Park School headteacher Kate Curtis – who has since left the school – said some of her staff had been 'in tears' about the housing crisis.

She told councillors staff were being driven out of Oxford due to high house prices, branding the situation 'shameful' and 'unacceptable'.

But Prof Howson, who sits on the committee, said he understood little progress had been made on teacher housing plans.

Last year Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford unveiled plans to build its own homes for teachers on the school site in a bid to attract talented staff.

Prof Howson noted key worker housing would only be a 'temporary solution' to a much wider problem.

He said: "You're never going to solve the problem if the housing market is so distorted between different parts of the country.

"Do you go to employers to provide housing for those people who can't afford to buy in the area?

"Or do you do something about making house prices more reasonable?

"The Government has never really got to grips with that. At present, nobody is coming up with a really serious solution."