The crisis in teaching recruitment has forced at least two schools to close so far this term, writes Madeleine Pennell.

Wood Farm First School and Windale First School in Oxford have closed for one day each.

Both had too many staff off sick to cover classes and could not get any supply teachers to stand in.

A couple of staff were in the schools each time to look after children whose parents could not get childcare.

The closures highlight how tightly the problem of recruiting teachers is gripping Oxfordshire.

Wood Farm First School, in Titup Hall Drive, Headington, closed yesterday after five of its six staff were away from school. Headteacher Carol Price is abroad, two teachers are ill, one had to care for a sick child and another has recently been bereaved. A supply teacher due to work at the school this week reported in sick and no replacements could be found.

Sue Burrows, acting chair of governors, said: "This is a one-off. Flu has wiped out most of the staff who are sick.

"For the safety of the children it was felt that we should close and it is one extra day, coming up to half term."

Mary Whitfield, headteacher at Windale First School, Windale Avenue, Blackbird Leys, which closed on Thursday, February 1, said half her staff had been ill at once. The only way the school could have remained open would have been to double up classes, which she said was not acceptable.