TWO Swindon schools have joined together to form a special partnership in a bid to improve the faltering performance of one of them.

Parents with children at the struggling Isambard Community School received a letter at the end of last term, in which it was laid out that the school would become a sister school to Lydiard Park Academy.

The catalyst for the changes was an Ofsted inspection carried out at Isambard earlier this year.

Although the formal outcome of the inspection is yet to be made public, it is anticipated to be critical of a number of different aspects of the school, principally the GCSE results attained and inconsistencies in the quality of teaching and learning.

In a letter sent to parents on Thursday, Jon Young, the operational principal at Isambard, and Clive Zimmerman, executive principal at both schools, wrote: “Many of you will also know that LPA is an academy, which means that it is a state school that is owned and run by a charitable trust, called The Park Academies Trust.

“The main aim of the trust is to bring the highest educational standards to as many Swindon children as we are able to, so we are delighted that Isambard Community School, a school with such fantastic potential, will now begin a transition towards becoming part of the trust.

“Having spent just a few days at the school we have been extremely impressed by the courteous and respectful way in which pupils behave.

“We have also been very heartened by the warm welcome that staff have given us and their obvious desire for Isambard to become a better school. It is already apparent to us that Isambard is a great school waiting to happen.”

The move is part of LPA’s bid to found a Multi-Academy Trust.

It will allow the school to work closely with other schools that would benefit from being supported.

LPA’s new legal status was attained on September 1 with the creation of a parent trust called The Park Academies Trust.

Swindon Borough Council has worked closely with both schools to enable the merger.

A council spokesman said: “The council is fully supportive of the new arrangement, and organised and assisted the discussions that allowed it to happen. It has been put in place to support Isambard to improve its performance and give the best possible education to its pupils.”

It is thought that the main reason for Isambard’s problems are its poor GCSE results.

Mr Zimmerman said: “The behaviour of pupils in classrooms and around the school is generally good and the school presents as a calm and orderly place to learn.

“The real issue that will have concerned Ofsted is to find the reasons for the low level of GCSE results, especially so given the very good quality of primary education pupils receive before joining and pupils’ clear willingness to behave well.

“We can already see that the underlying problem is the lack of a common framework for teachers to work to when planning lessons, delivering them and giving good quality feedback.

“This has led to wide variations in both the quality of education pupils receive and the standards they are expected to work to.”

A meeting for parents to discuss the merger is being held at Isambard on Tuesday.