THE head teacher and staff at Taunton's Castle School have been chosen to support other schools in challenging circumstances.

It comes after The Castle's best ever GCSE results placed it in the top 5% of schools nationally.

Sarah Watson is among 70 heads appointed as a national leader of education for her work supporting schools from all sectors.

And Castle has been designated a national support school, meaning it will use its success and professionalism to provide additional leadership capability in other schools.

As an NLE, Mrs Watson will provide flexible support to other schools and bring on the next generation of NLEs and National Support Schools.

Somerset County Gazette:

Castle head teacher Sarah Watson.

Mrs Watson said: “This is a huge compliment to the school and its staff, and recognition for the exemplary education at The Castle.

"We already have a significant number of both state and independent schools asking to come and learn from us and to have this recognised by the government is very rewarding.

"We love hearing about the successes they have had as a result of working with us.

"It benefits us too as you can see from the GCSE results this year with 83% of our students gaining at least five A* to C grades, including English and maths and at least 50% gaining A/A*s."