Schools in England are finding it hard to recruit people into their top-level teaching jobs.

The National Governors' Association (NGA) has said candidates who are applying for head teacher jobs are not of the required standard, with written applications often littered with basic grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

Chief executive of the NGA Emma Knights told the Independent: "You don't expect a school leader to be told to put the apostrophe in the right place, or the capital letters in the right place, or that they need to get the school name right."

There was also a problem caused by Ofsted rankings, with those determined to be 'outstanding' finding it hard to attract suitable candidates, as many are often deterred from applying due to the high expectations the classification brings.

"With outstanding schools they may think the only way is down, whereas it is easier for them to make their mark with those that require improvement," explained Ms Knights, stating that many deputy heads are often put off taking the next step due to the "high stakes nature" and stress of the top job.

According to the NGA, faith schools are also having issues with teacher recruitment and this was confirmed by figures from the Catholic Education Service, which highlighted only slightly more than half of headship vacancies at Catholic schools were filled at first advert in 2012.

The Catholic Education Service believes part of this issue is due to the faith-practising requirement that comes with headteacher roles in these schools. However, it also expressed a concern that good or outstanding ratings from Ofsted are a deterrent to head candidates.

Responding to the accusations, a Department for Education representative said it was "vital" all schools find a head teacher with the right skill set and experience to lead them and the growing network of teaching schools will help to deliver teachers with the potential to be heads in the future.

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