The government needs to allocate more funds to creating more partnership working between schools, it has been suggested.

Using his first address as president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), Andy Brown claims that there is currently too much competition among different schools.

"I would like schools to work more closely with one another: to co-operate rather than compete; to share their skills and expertise to help pupils," Children and Young People Now report him as saying.

"It is only by all pulling together that we can provide the best education for the children in our charge."

Mr Brown says that the government can play a part in realising this vision by increasing funding and reducing the pressure on school budgets.

Furthermore, the ATL leader called for the coalition to radically scale back testing in schools and do away with the "accompanying horror" of league tables.

Earlier this year, the education union called upon the government to do more to act on behalf of students following their exam results.

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