One school, Swindon Academy, is helping another Nova Hreod improve its national rankings.

Councillors quizzing education bosses at the borough council’s Scrutiny Committee heard that improved leadership and collaboration between schools was helping them pick up. The council’s head of education Peter Nathan said: “In the measure of pupil progress - Progress 8 - last year we had schools in the bottom quartile.

“Now Nova Hreod has picked itself up to be at the national average for pupil progress, and Swindon Academy's Progress 8 rating is extremely good.”

Mr Nathan added: “There is an increased focus on leadership throughout the schools, and training of teachers and more collaboration.”

In 2017 Nova Hreod was officially “well below average” for pupil progress but in provisional statistics for 2018 it is now at "average"; also "well below average" was St Luke's School, which has since closed and re-opened as an academy.

In both 2017 and 2018 Swindon Academy was measured to be “well above average” for the pupil’s progress measure which was introduced in 2016.

And Mr Nathan’s point about increased collaboration seems to be borne out by the example of both Swindon Academy and Nova Hreod, which share an executive principal in Ruth Robinson, and are both managed by the United Learning academy trust.

Mrs Robinson started at Swindon Academy in Beech Avenue six years ago, and was asked to lead at Nova Hreod last year.

She said: “When I took over at Swindon Academy we brought in a very strict behavioural code and very high expectations for our pupils.

“We were able to attract excellent teachers with the promise that there would be no low-level disruption of lessons - that there would be no disruption in the classroom at all. All teachers want to hear that, they love being able to teach without having to deal with disruptive behaviour.

“We also brought in a lot of support and very strong pastoral care to help pupils wherever they needed it.”

Mrs Robinson said such an approach really paid off at the academy: “For three years, 2016, 17 and 18, Swindon Academy was the top school in Swindon for progress and is in the top 15 per cent of schools nationally for progress. We know we’ve got a method that works.”

After Nova Hreod’s poor scores last year for pupil progress, which saw it in the bottom 20 per cent nationally, bosses at United Learning asked Mrs Robinson to take the reins there.

She said: “I was asked to collaborate and share the approach that was working so well at Swindon Academy. It’s not quite one size fits all, but if something is working, then it’s worth trying.”

Class sized for GCSE candidates were reduced, and after school clubs and lessons were targeted at pupils who needed the most help.

Now the school’s progress measure has leapt to be at the national average.

Mrs Robinson said: “Everybody has responded. The secondary headteacher at Swindon Academy Karen Stokes did a lot of work with heads of departments here at Nova Hreod, and if we needed anything or help from Swindon Academy we just asked and got it.

“It’s been quite joyous, teachers love sharing with each other, and results in August showed it's really working.

"We had a big celebration."

Progress 8 statistics for 2018, provided by the Department for Education are provisional and will be published definitively next year.

Councillor David Renard, Leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “The latest unvalidated data shows there have been considerable improvements in the GCSE results for English and Mathematics at levels 5 to 9 (or the previous A*-C level) in a number of schools in Swindon.

“Swindon Academy saw an increase of 17 per cent, Nova Herod Academy an increase of 13 per cent and there was considerable improvement too at Lawn Manor Academy, Dorcan Academy, Abbey Park and also Highworth Warneford.

“One of the most pleasing improvements was in pupil progress in mathematics which now matches the national average. This has happened because of the hard work and commitment of the teachers and leaders in schools, the collaboration between schools in sharing good practice and also due to the impact of the Council investing half a million pounds in Swindon Challenge funding which has supported the initiatives underpinning this improvement.

“There is of course much more to do but these results show that the strategies we have in place are starting to have an impact.”