Here is the inspiring story of how, in a single year, a dynamic headmistress rescued a failing and despairing inner-city comprehensive threatened with closure.Imagine a school where the staff are too fearful to leave the staffroom at breaktime, where stealing and absenteeism are rife, where vicious fights continually break out in the bleak playground, and children wander the corridors chatting on mobile phones.Now imagine a school where children turn up early to have breakfast and play football in a playground furnished with goalposts, tables and attractive plants; where the cheerfully painted corridors are empty and classrooms full during lessons, where classical music plays over the intercom and where uniformed pupils welcome visitors such as Lenny Henry, Ralph Fiennes and Cherie Booth to give inspirational talks.This is the transformation that headmistress Marie Stubbs effected at St George`s, an inner-city comprehensive in London`s Maida Vale. The school had gone into a steep decline after the murder of its head, Philip Lawrence, outside the school gates in 1995. When Marie Stubbs took over it was threatened with closure after a damning Ofsted report. St George`s pupils had been depicted in the press as demons, but within 15 months this elegant 61-year-old grandmother had given them back their self-respect. Attendance rose, examination results improved by 50 per cent and in March 2001 the school received a glowing report from Ofsted. Marie Stubbs`s approach combines conviction, imagination, old-fashioned discipline and modern management techniques. The heartwarming story of how she and her chosen task force turned round a school that had lost hope is inspiring.
