An Oxford teacher training course that focused on nursery school work is to end after six years because of a lack of suitable premises.

Staff said Teacher Training Agency funding would still have been available for the Oxfordshire Consortium for Training Teachers in School (OCTTIS) course, taught at the Westminster Institute of Education, in Botley. But OCTTIS was no longer able to use classrooms at the site as other users needed them.

Tutor Julie Cigman said other options had been considered but none was ideal. Ms Cigman, who has taught the Foundation Stage element of the course for the past three years, said the OCTTIS course focused in particular on skills needed to teach three to five-year-olds.

Though Oxford Brookes University would continue to offer courses to teacher-training students at the Institute, the consortium's specialisation in nursery work would be missed, she said.

"It's a great loss at a time when the Government is pressing for all schools to have early years specialisms," she said.

A party for past tutors and students will be held at the Botley site on Saturday, July 13.