SCHOOLS have been warned they must do more to help disadvantaged children or face the potential of Ofsted enforcing special measures.

The school watchdog's south east regional director Bradley Simmons told the Oxford Mail he had "real concerns" about the gap between poorer children and their richer peers right across the county.

It comes after New Marston Primary School in Oxford became the sixth school in the county to be placed in special measures.

Mr Simmons said despite some schools in the county doing well to meet expectations, there were others letting the "have-nots" of the county down.

He said: "Some specific schools in affluent areas have not dealt well with the disadvantaged kids they have.

"Schools in Oxfordshire need to pay more attention to disadvantaged groups and make sure they are getting the education to which they are entitled."

He also said schools and local education authority Oxfordshire County Council could not use the teacher recruitment crisis as an excuse for bad ratings.

In yesterday's Oxford Mail, education experts warned Oxford could end up with some of the worst schools in the country if they continued struggling to recruit and retain staff.

The crisis has been blamed on high living costs in the city and a shortage of teachers being trained here.

Mr Simmons said: "Oxfordshire is not alone in this problem and some authorities deal with these problems a little more proactively.

"It is not a reason for schools to just sit back and say ‘that is fine then isn’t it?'"

"They need to think how they can work to really move people into roles, whether that is grow-your-own, whether it is becoming much closer with a teacher training institution in the area."

But the council's education chief Melinda Tilley said Mr Simmons did not understand the problems faced locally, such as high living costs.

She said: "Oxford is the second most expensive place to live after London.

"We have been asking for salary weightings for key workers for a long time and have been ignored.

"We are doing a lot to try to put the situation with disadvantaged kids right.

"We are trying to address it but schools also have to do what they can and spend their pupil premium money well."

Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford is rated good by Ofsted but has had problems recruiting teachers for key subjects such as computing and physics.

Headteacher Sue Croft said Mr Simmons was right to talk about "grow-your own" teachers and better links with teacher training establishments but that more had to be done.

She said: "The Government has not hit its targets for training sufficient teachers.

"A lot of schools are already doing those things but even if they are, the pot of teachers is not big enough.

"Then there is the cost of living in Oxford."