This has been a challenging week for everyone associated with education in Swindon. I have received emails from upset parents, spoken to angry headteachers, and had conversations with colleagues who have been left utterly frustrated by the events of the last few days.

When Ofsted’s regional director made the sweeping statement that children in Swindon are being “failed at every level” by our schools, he may have got the headlines he was looking for, but he did little to inspire those who strive every day to do the very best they can for our children.

I could fill up the pages of this newspaper with education statistics, but the ones presented by Ofsted were used selectively to paint an altogether different picture of the state of education in our town.

Yes there are areas in which we need to improve. We recognise our phonics results are not where they need to be and the results from the Government’s new writing assessment dipped from our normal levels, but we have a strategy in place to deal with these issues and we thought we had Ofsted’s full backing.

We still have a great deal to do. Yet we are exceeding our Pledge to increase the percentage of Swindon primary schools graded good or outstanding by Ofsted to at the least the national average by March 2021. The figure currently stands at 92 per cent.

We know some of our secondary schools are not performing at the level they should be, but although almost all are academies and come under the remit of the Regional Schools Commissioner, we have played a significant role in setting up partnerships with good or outstanding schools so good practice can be shared and standards improved.

Ofsted did not mention that five of our six special schools are rated good or outstanding, or that Uplands was named National School of the Year. There was no mention of our GCSE results having improved by five per cent, above the national improvement of three per cent, nor was there acknowledgement of the great work going on in many of our secondary schools.

When we responded to Ofsted’s letter and press release we did so in the form of an open letter to parents, staff and the residents of Swindon. We did this because we wanted to stand up for education in our town.

I am proud of our school leaders, teachers, governors, support staff and my colleagues in the council who work tirelessly to give our children the best possible start in life. And I thank them for that.

We are passionate about improving the opportunities for our young people which is why we have set Pledges dedicated to improving educational standards in our schools as part of our Vision for Swindon.