Anyone who has been within ten paces of me this week will know that  my big event of the term so far has been a visit to another school.

Now that doesn’t mean that I’m playing down the great things we’ve been doing at Marden recently and  I must pay tribute to the way in which staff and students have teamed together to make our new systems work. But if it’s OK with you, I’ll save all of that for other blogs.

This is what I want to tell you.

On Tuesday I went to City Academy in Hackney. You might already know that I’ve worked in a lot of schools. I’ve even been lucky enough to visit  schools in the USA, but my day  at City was unforgettable.

They’re working in a stunning new building, but that isn’t what makes City special. What sets it apart is an iron determination to  meet very high expectations of all students and this is rooted in a belief that all learners can achieve regardless of their backgrounds. And City is a school serving an area which has suffered for years from deprivation and frightening levels of violent crime.

The head is Gosforth born and bred Mark Emmerson. He espouses a no nonsense (and no excuses) philosophy of ensuring that behaviour is of the highest order so that his teachers can teach creatively without interruption. This means that learners can thrive, even though most of them enter the school with below average levels in English and Maths. City has been Ofstedded twice in its four years of existence and has been graded Outstanding in both inspections. This is largely because of the students’ remarkable progress. Indeed, when you look at the social context they’re working in, Mark’s staff and students have the odds well and truly stacked against them. But together they’re winning.

And I think what they do is nothing short of heroic.

Now this doesn’t mean that I want Marden to be a clone of City Academy. We’re a great school too with our own way of doing things. So I won’t be emulating Mark’s insistence on pink blazers, absolute silence in the corridors and a single choice of school meal with no packed lunches (and before you ask, the students are NOT allowed to leave the site at dinner time).

However, City gave me a powerful reminder that schools can learn from one another.

I brought back to Marden a range of ideas that will help us on our journey to Outstanding. For example, at City, they celebrate and share good classroom practice really well by using the on call teacher to visit classrooms to photograph examples of great learning. These are compiled in a photo montage and published to staff every Friday.

And here’s another thing. City is making great strides with teaching literacy. They have a motto: “ On every desk a book.” This means that an essential part of every student’s equipment is a book which they are reading for pleasure and they aim to give them the chance to read quietly for at least 20 minutes every day.

Well, I think they’re great ideas and I’d like to pinch them with full acknowledgement  to Mark and his team

But here’s the big point.

In these days of austerity and struggle, schools should be learning from one another much more,  not seeking to cut each others’ throats as is happening not a million miles away from Marden at the moment. Sharing and collaboration are very potent means of staff training and they also enhance the sense of common purpose which all educators should share.

That’s why one of the upshots of my sojourn in Hackney was to phone three local headteachers to arrange for members of the Marden Learning Forum  to do learning walks in their schools. All three said yes without hesitation even though it’s going to happen on the busy last day before half term holiday.

That says a lot about them as individuals and about the spirit of mutual support which exists in nearly all of North Tyneside.