That was the beacon school she had turned round, spreading good practice to others. She asked them to join her in the task force at St George’s.”My first impression was that it was a school that was dull,” she said “It seemed to lack a sense of life and vitality and urgency There was a sluggish feel It felt as though people in the school were tired. There was a kind of subliminated anger among the pupils that they weren’t getting the kind of education they wanted.”The first thing that I wanted to know was what was going on in the heads of the children. I made a great point of listening to and getting to know the children.”In fact, she shook hands and introduced herself to each and every one of them. A suggestion box was placed in the entrance hall for their views on how to improve the school.

One Year 11 student wrote a note saying: “I welcome you to our school and hope you enjoy yourself here. I also thank you for giving up your retirement time to come and save our school.”The savvier pupils knew of her appointment through the media “I seen you on telly, miss,” said one girl “Don’t say that,” admonished Lady Marie. “It’s ‘I saw you on television’.”She and her team mixed a strong sense of discipline and grammatical correctness with the feeling that they needed to bring back fun into the pupils’ lives The playground was considered a violent place. Pedro Querioz, 15, who has been a pupil at the school for four years, explains: “Sometimes people got into an argument in the playground. There was no football, no basketball.”Staff set up basketball games in the playground with Lady Marie – a former “shooter” with her school team – joining in. Gradually, the pupils got the impression the task force and the teachers were on their side and began to respond.Perhaps the most impressive change (the pupils say so themselves) was bringing in a star-studded list of outside speakers to instil confidence and to challenge them The outsiders were saying: If we can succeed, you can too.

Among the luminaries who came to speak were Cherie Blair, the Prime Minister’s wife, Lenny Henry, the comedian, Frank Bruno, the former boxer and Kevin Keegan, former England football manager. Sporting links have led to Harrow public school inviting St George’s rugby team to play on their fields.According to Sasan Khoram, 15, the speakers have “inspired us with what they had done” Tracey O’Leary says: “They lifted the pupils’ self-esteem. One said I can’t believe somebody so important would want to come here to talk to me.”The change in the atmosphere at the school is neatly summed up by Sean Devlin, a member of the task force, who says: “One of the most important things is that the pupils come to school expecting to learn in each lesson through good quality teaching. They now expect a high quality of education.”Lady Stubbs is not leaving without regrets. The three-strong task force together with 13 other teachers at the school are departing at the same time.

This must be a blow for the school.There are real fears about whether the improvements can be sustained in a climate of staffing shortages and by less experienced teachers. (One former deputy, Sean Devlin, put in for the vacant headship but lost out to outside candidate, Philip Jakszta.)While the task force is giving its support to the new head until it leaves, there is a feeling that Westminster, the local education authority, and the local diocese have not been quick enough to push for experienced replacement staff.”I can see that we – the task force – are very robust people and we don’t suffer fools gladly,” says Lady Stubbs. “We have a lot of sympathy with anybody who has to work with us. We’re a very demanding group of people.”Westminster says it is confident it will have filled all 16 vacancies by September and has hired agencies to conduct interviews with potential new staff this week.However, the St George’s management team argues in a written statement: “All children respond well to stability and continuity in school and the population of St George’s needs this perhaps more than other children because many have a diverse home situation.”Their school provides the key reference point for stability in their lives.