image: book cover of 'How to Create a Successful School'

"How to Create a Successful School"

The crucial element of any successful school is a top-class head teacher. In HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL Francis Beckett profiles nine heads with very different views of how to run a school, united only by the fact that each is succeeding against the odds and turning around failing schools in poor areas. They include Paul Kelley of Monkseaton Community High School on Tyneside, from where Laura Spence graduated to Harvard after being turned down by Magdalen College, Oxford.

Beckett argues that education is a route out of poverty. A child in a household living below the poverty line is less likely than other children to gain the qualifications which allow him or her to succeed in life. Often, these schools represent the only chance in life these children will receive.

HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL is a brilliant addition to the eternal debate on public education and a signpost to what can be achieved in the most difficult of situations.