Canadian recruits have helped the borough's out of its teacher recruitment crisis.

In early June, there were 112 teacher vacancies in Croydon's schools but this figure is rapidly reducing and is now down to 30, with most of the recruits coming from this country.

Councillor Louisa Woodley, Croydon's Cabinet Member for Education said all posts should be filled soon: "I have very positive indications with regards to the vacancies being filled for September.

"We started the ball rolling two years ago and that involved recruiting more teachers from overseas but we also encouraged high quality teachers in the UK to work in Croydon."

In the past two years, teachers have been employed from countries including Australia and the USA to cope with Croydon's teacher shortages which saw 125 empty posts this time last year.

As part of a recruitment drive that began two years ago, Croydon Council has helped new recruits get priority on rented housing, organised a strategy recruitment manager to work with schools and advertised to attract local graduates and former teachers.