A TEACHER training school in Oxford has released the "vast majority" of its first cohort into the county's schools as it battles to attract teachers to the area.

House prices and cost of rent in the area has been blamed for a shortage in teachers but last week 56 newly qualified teachers from Oxfordshire Teacher Training - based at The Cherwell School - began working full-time in the county's state schools.

The training scheme's director Patrick Garton said external factors such as house prices were having an impact but that his organisation was working to turn the tide and keep young teachers here.

He said: "The national picture doesn't look good but we are trying to do something positive here in Oxfordshire and it's great that so many of our teachers have remained in schools locally.

"We have been training teachers with the help of the city's universities since 2013 but this is the first batch of homegrown people and we are confident they will be educating children in the county for the next five or ten years at least."

Mr Garton said most of the people the school has trained either lived in Oxfordshire or have links to the area.

The scheme offers salaried training to potential teachers and Mr Garton said it was an important move to help recruitment.

He said: "Oxford is a very expensive area to live – I spoke at a county council education committee meeting on this and it is an issue, particularly when a lot of teachers are starting in their 20s.

"Our salaried programmes have helped and we hope have trained teachers who will stay in Oxford for the next five or ten years at least".

In July the county council's cabinet member for education Melinda Tilley wrote to the Department for Education with her concerns that vacancies in the county were not being filled.

But the Cherwell OTSA SCITT - as it is known - has come up with a scheme it hopes will improve the picture.

Schools invest in the scheme and in the training of teachers who could become part of their full-time staff just twelve months later.

Mr Garton said: "The fact that so many of our teachers have stayed in the county and actually more than half now have jobs at the school they trained, is great.

"We have 80 more who have just started training with us this year and we look forward to even more in the future."

"To be honest it's hard work finding the right people – it's a great job but it's challenging and it's about finding people with the right qualities."