EDUCATION secretary Michael Gove will be asked to scrutinise an independent review into how paedophile teacher Nigel Leat was able to abuse children at a Weston-super-Mare school.

The town's MP, John Penrose, says he will ask Mr Gove to take steps to ensure lessons learned from an inquiry commissioned by the North Somerset Safeguarding Children Board are applied to all schools, ensuring they have the right measures in place to stop a similar case happening in future.

Leat, a teacher at Hillside First School, was jailed indefinitely after admitting a total of 36 offences against girl pupils on school property from September 2006 to July 2010.

The 52-year-old, of Bloomfield Road, Brislington, started working at the school in 1995 and the review published last month estimated that he could have abused up to 40 children, aged as young as six.

Mr Penrose said: "Right now, people want to be reassured their children are safe and that this kind of abuse can't happen again.

"It isn't just a question of having the right rules and regulations. The culture of every school needs to be right, so the rules are policed properly by teachers who follow the highest possible standards of professional behaviour."