“You set limits and you praise,” the head of Hurlingham and Chelsea secondary in inner London told a behaviour summit at the Department for Education and Skills last week.

Ms Gerber does not allow any child to disrupt the learning of others at her 1,050-pupil comprehensive, in a deprived area.

A senior manager patrols the school all day and removes disruptive pupils immediately, taking them to be supervised elsewhere. Parents are summoned after three such incidents and the pupil referred for in-school support.

Since the patrol was introduced last term, disruptive or abusive behaviour has fallen from one in three classes visited to one in nine. Attendance has risen this term from 87 to nearly 90 per cent and temporary exclusions have fallen sharply.

A learning support unit was set up two years ago with money from the Excellence in Cities scheme. The school has now two learning mentors, a teacher to raise African-Caribbean achievement, a part-time counsellor and an attendance team. Last year, some 80 per cent of pupils referred for help at the unit or with a case-worker were successfully reintegrated into the classroom.

The school has a uniform, a five-point code of conduct and a system of sanctions and rewards - including vouchers, certificates and trophies.

Ms Gerber knows exactly how she would spend her school’s share of the pound;66 million promised by Education Secretary Estelle Morris last week.

“We would expand the staffing of the learning support unit and introduce electronic registration. We already do truancy sweeps but more staff would be welcome.”

But she is less keen to have a police officer stationed in the school. “It sends the wrong message. We work closely with police and have a police officer at the school gates to make sure children get home safely. But during the day, we can manage on our own.”