MAURA Regan, principal of one of the North-East’s most praised schools, says Carmel College in Darlington is doing its best to export its recipe for success.

The high-performing Catholic comprehensive school is now at the centre of the Carmel Education Trust, an expanding network which provides support to a growing family of five other schools - with a sixth due to join shortly.

What Carmel finds effective, said Miss Regan, is strong leadership at every level, an emphasis on professional development for staff and developing a culture and an ethos that allows children to develop, learn and be themselves.

“It is about unearthing the talent in all children, whatever it might be,” said Miss Regan, who has been at the 1,250 pupil 11-18 school for 30 years.

“We have a calm atmosphere in the school. We don’t have bells, it isn’t necessary. It is about children being happy in the corridors but working hard in the classroom,” she added.

The principal said staff are asked to deliver to children the same quality of teaching as they would deliver to their own child.

Commenting on the regional Ofsted Report Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said she was pleased to see a Darlington school singled out for all the right reasons.

“But schools rated less than good or outstanding are simply not good enough. They must improve and improve quickly,” she added.

The MP said the Department of Education needed to be “far more willing to intervene” when schools are failing instead of allowing academy sponsor to deal with issues on their own.

Cyndi Hughes, lead member for children and young people at Darlington Borough Council, said she was “extremely concerned” that the proportion of pupils attending good or better secondary schools in the town had slumped from 74 to 54 in the last year.

While the council no longer had direct control over the town’s secondary schools, which are now all academies, the authority was ready to support schools “in any way we can,” she added.