WHEN DAME MARIE Stubbs was tempted from retirement three years ago and asked to rescue St George's school in Maida Vale, London, from a threat of closure, the task seemed hopeless.
Five years previously, its principal Philip Lawrence was murdered while trying to protect a student from knife-wielding youths. As the school failed to recover from the shock it was eventually placed in 'special measures' by the British government. Staff and student morale was rock-bottom - something needed to be done.
That something was bringing in the 'formidable superhead' - as she was known - the impeccably powdered and manicured Stubbs.
The fact that the school was deemed a national example of good practice after only four terms was a remarkable achievement by any standards. 'My biggest constraint was the time frame,' she says. 'It all had to be achieved in about a year or so. It should probably have taken about five to seven years.'
Opinions vary as to the contributions made by various people involved - and there were many - and Stubbs' reign was fraught with tension and controversy; some of it acted out in the national press. Eight teachers resigned and staff boycotted the May Ball she held for final year students at the end of the year. But there is little doubt that the single-minded determination of a woman driven by an almost religious and simple commitment to seeing children given their entitlement of a fair chance of a decent education had a fundamental impact on the school's improvement.
Her down-to-earth common sense and traditional values surprised many at first. She insisted on old-fashioned good manners and that people speak and act respectfully towards other. No violence, indiscipline or truancy was to be tolerated. Teachers were forbidden to refer to students as 'kids'.