SENIOR staff in good schools have a moral duty to help other schools that are struggling, leadership teams from across North Wiltshire have been told.

South West regional schools commissioner Rebecca Clark was invited to Bradon Forest yesterday to give her vision of the strategy for improving standards across the South West and told teachers collaboration and sharing were the key.

The visit came just under a fortnight after a stinging letter by Ofsted regional director Bradley Simmons that said Swindon children were being failed by their schools at every stage.

Although Bradon Forest comes under Wiltshire and was rated “good” in its last Ofsted inspection earlier this year, over 70 per cent of its intake of pupils come from Swindon.

The former national education director for Oasis Community Learning and an ex-school principal, told school leaders from several schools including Malmesbury and Sheldon, that there was a positive side to the director’s letter.

Assistant head teacher Julie Hunter told the Advertiser: “She was saying that maybe we will look back at the letter and say it was a good thing. It has made us take stock and think about solutions that could be put in place. We need to have collective responsibility.”

The idea was that it didn’t matter where they were teaching, as school leaders they had a moral purpose to help struggling schools.

“I think the immediate response was we welcomed a very clear message. She was clear about what her vision for the South West was. She wants to make sure students in the South West compete with students nationally.”

“It certainly gave people food for thought.”

In Wiltshire there were five school alliances, where schools helped each other, but she pointed out they were all in the north of the county.

The onus was on high performing schools to share their knowledge with other to make sure that every school near them could improve, while school leaders should take decisions for the benefit of pupils rather than their own egos.

In Swindon Lydiard Park Academy has just begun supporting Isambard Community School, providing leadership and management support.

Bradley Simmons’s letter prompted a furious response from Swindon Borough Council and teachers in the town. Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers accused him of demotivating the teaching profession.