A SECONDARY school declared by a government department to be "failing," has taken its first steps to recovery according to its new headteacher.

Michael Murphy took over at Crown Woods School, in Riefield Road, Eltham in January this year, and has already presided over a 4 per cent increase in pupils attaining GCSE grade A* to C.

His methods are controversial but his track record at his previous school speaks for itself. He transformed Hurlingham and Chelsea from a failure to one of London's best comprehensives.

And he is using the same methods at Crown Woods.

He said: "It's not rocket science, the changes I make are elementary and all done to try and improve performance."

At the end of his first year in charge the school has already progressed.

In the secondary school league tables, the school had previously not had more than 30 per cent of pupils attaining grades A*-C at GCSE. This summer, the school jumped to 34.3 per cent.

Mr Murphy appreciated that there is still a great deal of work to be done.

He said: "When I started here, I set a number of targets which will be extremely tough to achieve. But it is good to set these targets because it energises the staff, the governors and the pupils."

Discipline was another issue Mr Murphy addressed in his first year. Although temporary exclusion figures will not be available until next July, he is confident they will be lower.

He said: "You have to make children understand who is in charge and why we are here. That is why we put in a new school uniform.

"That way pupils know when they are in school and when it is leisure time. They know they will not be allowed to do certain things while they are in school."

The school is also heavily involved in the re-organisation of Greenwich education and is set to become a designated special provision centre, taking on children with moderate learning disabilities.

Mr Murphy said: "I am all for inclusion, we will be taking on children with learning disabilities and we hope to stream them into the main school to benefit everyone."

December 19, 2001 11:00