Greenwood Dale School

This school is remarkable among remarkable schools in

having the highest running-average CVA score since the

measure was introduced. The results at Greenwood Dale

School, which stood at 80% five or more higher grade

GCSE passes in 2007, 51% with English and mathematics,

might have dwelled for a time around this high point

or inched upward; instead they leapt to 93% and 57%,

respectively, in 2008. The school exists for learning

and trumps its own achievements year on year. It is

hugely oversubscribed but serves, first and foremost, an

underprivileged and very mixed community, with a large

Muslim Asian population, eastern European immigrants

and working-class White British among the many groups

represented. This is a challenging area. The school rises

above these tensions, bringing the young people from

this complex and challenging community together in a

way that breeds hope for future generations, gradually

raising aspirations and delivering on its promises. The

school is trusted where much else is not.

The school’s success has been hard won. It is hard to

believe that when the current headteacher, Barry Day

OBE, arrived 17 years ago, the school was despised for

its perceived racism, undersubscribed and virtually out

of control. Attendance stood at 70% and it was hard

to attract staff. There was a huge budget deficit which

meant that one quarter of all staff had to be made

redundant in the first two terms.

Over the years the school has been utterly transformed.

At the root of this change lies certainty of vision,

consistency of purpose and a belief that everyone,

students and staff alike, can achieve more than

they thought possible, given the right conditions

and encouragement. The result is an organisation

that is secure in what it does. It takes on ambitious

commitments but leaves nothing to chance. It innovates

and experiments but at little risk. It achieves the near

impossible, for example by squeezing 1,300 students

into a constricted hill-top site designed for half that

number. Not only does the school continue to improve,

but it also takes other schools under its wing and turns

them around. All this is done in a modest, matter-of-fact

way which belies the underlying confidence, courage

and commitment of its leadership. The school provides

educational excellence, human warmth and moral

authority. Little wonder that, having transformed the

school from one of the worst to one of the very best, the

headteacher – now executive principal – and staff can

now take any challenge in their stride.