'WHEN I first came here as a teacher finances were so tight we didn’t even have bibles in our RE class,” says Pam Hanrahan, who reflects on the remarkable transformation she has led at St Peter’s Catholic Voluntary Academy.

Next month (DECEMBER) Mrs Hanrahan will celebrate her sixth year as headteacher. Four of the school’s five best sets of results and its most glowing Ofsted report have come during her tenure.

It is a far cry from the perilous situation the school found itself in 2009 when falling numbers meant that council bosses had earmarked it for closure.

“Back then we had an extremely limited budget because the closure announcement meant a lot of parents voted with their feet and took their kids elsewhere,” says Mrs Hanrahan.

That year’s intake totalled 55 pupils. Since the closure plans were scrapped by the Government four years ago year groups have soared to more than 100 and demand is so great they have to turn down 60 to 70 applicants a year.

The school recently hosted a bust open evening and expects to be oversubscribed again this year. The catchment area has widened too.

“We see kids being dropped off in Range Rovers now,” says Simon Bell, deputy headteacher.

Mrs Hanrahan quit her job at a school in what she calls “a leafy suburb” of Stockton 17 years ago become part of the senior leadership team at St Peter’s.

She recalls: “Within five minutes I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life. It was awful. The discipline was terrible, there was no achievement – we had 14 per cent A* to C grades and that was regarded as a good year. It was a very weak school.”

This year 56 per cent achieved A* to C, including English and Maths.

The areas that surrounds St Peter’s are among the most deprived in England. Many pupils are classed as living in poverty.

“I don’t think a high deprivation factor gives them the excuse to be badly behaved or disrespectful,” says Mrs Hanrahan, adding: “The first thing I knew I had to change after I became head was behaviour. If you have poor behaviour in school then the kids aren’t learning and your results are not going to get any better. It is as simple as that.”

A lot of time and money was spent to introduce a behaviour management system with a strong emphasis on pastoral care.

The headteacher adds: “I make no apologies for saying that we are very strict. For example, they walk into assembly in silence.

“Our uniform used to be horrible. We had polo shirts that once you’d washed them three times they were manky. I decided things had to change, but I let the kids vote on what they wanted. You could have knocked me over with a feather when they chose blazers, shirts, and ties.

"When we first got the new uniforms delivered to school it would have taken your breath away to see our kids walking home with their blazers on hangers, holding them like they were precious. It was an amazing sight."

She adds: “Some people have made mistakes in the past by assuming that kids don’t know any better and leaving it at that. As far as I am concerned we are teaching them how to behave as well as to teach them the curriculum."

“I would match our kids against any school anywhere. Every challenge we set them they rise to the occasion,” says Mr Bell, who cites the stellar performance of St Peter’s pupils who this year represented the region in a national mock trial competition where they took up the roles of barristers, solicitors, magistrates in a real courtroom.

Year 10 pupil Megan Weall, who took part in the competition, said the experience has given her a taste for a legal career. Fellow student Harry Twohig, 14, from Normanby, who plans to become a teacher, adds: "Not all of us who took part wants to train as a lawyer but it has raised expectations about going to a Russell Group university and being the best that we can."

Megan, from Grangetown, concludes: "I think this is a great school. It is small and you get a lot of individual attention. You know that everybody here cares about you. I would recommend it to anyone."