People in London teaching jobs stationed at both state and private schools must work together to improve the future and quality of life for all of the capital's school pupils.

This is a conclusion from a debate about the city's education system that was held by the London Evening Standard after the publication of data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that found English school-leavers are less educated than the rest of the developed world.

The study suggested that pupils who have just taken their GCSEs have lower levels of literacy and numeracy than their grandparents.

Experts on the panel acknowledged that London's schools had made terrific progress in the past decade and as a whole are now the second best in the UK, but they stressed that further improvement - the like that was needed to address the failings in the OECD report - will need to see the gap narrowed between the rich and the poor.

One of the panellists, Lucy Heller, chief executive of education charity Ark, said despite the progress over the last ten years, it is still the case that the children from the very poorest families in London leave school with the fewest amount of qualifications.

Clarissa Farr, head of St Paul's Girls' school, believes that private schools should be called upon to help close the gap, especially as 20 per cent of pupils are educated privately in London - double the national average.

She said: "Within education, we don't see this divide. Let's be proud, let's be ambitious for our young people and let's work together."

Robert Peston, the BBC business editor and founder of Speakers for Schools, said state schools could learn from the heritage and history at many private institutions.

As a teacher or somebody looking for a secondary teaching job in London, what do you think could be done to aid cooperation between private and state schools and is it the best way to bridge the divide between rich and poor?