St Mary's High School came out of Special Measures in 2005 under the leadership of head, Stephanie Benbow. But since then progress has been slow, and Stephanie feels frustrated by what she believes is a lack of aspiration from many students and some staff. We've brought in Tom Barwood, a motivational guru, and Heather Flint, a former secondary head who now works as a Government advisor, to see if they can offer any useful guidance. The school is planning to move to a new site in September 2009 and Tom believes this change could be a catalyst for boosting energy levels and enthusiasm amongst the pupils. Heather meanwhile focuses on working with the senior staff to develop a top down solution. She suggest they take up 'learning walks', visiting students in class and talking to them about their learning. Heather sees this as a positive replacement to the current approach where senior staff tend to visit only to deal with poor behaviour.

Video Series: Barwood and Flint Investigate
Release Date 2008