The Church of England girls’ school, in the London borough of Southwark, has more than doubled its share of A* to C grade GCSE passes - from 17 to 42 per cent - in one year, gaining third place in the “most improved state school” table, and prompting much media interest.

After all, the school is in the second most deprived borough in the country - an education authority which came fourth from the bottom in the LEAs’ league table.

And yet headteacher Irene Bishop, who was busy this week trying to fit school meetings in between press interviews, staunchly opposes league tables.

“I am against them because they do not show value added. The raw scores do not take into account variables - we are not football teams,” said Mrs Bishop, who took over 18 months ago after the previous head retired.

The 433-year-old school’s dramatically improved GCSE results across all subjects are no accident. Fresh from her deputy head’s post at a south London grant-maintained school, Mrs Bishop implemented a rigorous, structured development plan which involved enlisting the support of parents, reviving a homework club (now with a 98 per cent attendance rate), a mentoring scheme and a school council, and establishing an open-door management style.

Mary Lavery, head of upper school, explained Mrs Bishop’s success: “She’s full of energy, a lot of vigour. She’s always very positive. When there’s a crisis, she always turns it round to ‘Let’s work forward and let’s get the best for the school’. She’s got an extrovert personality, and gets on with all the staff. The girls like her as well.”

Mrs Bishop describes the morale of her experienced team as “high”.

“It has always been a good school,” she said. “The difference is we have introduced challenge and rigour. We say you can be as good as you want to be. I believe working-class girls are no less intelligent - it is just a question of opportunity. In a deprived area there is low self-esteem and low confidence. ”

Thirty languages are spoken at St Saviour’s and St Olave’s, which was a grammar school until 1977. There is high unemployment among the girls’ parents, and 52 per cent are eligible for free school meals.

An important strategy has been enlisting the support of parents, Last year, the attendance at one parents’ meeting was 100 per cent.

Parents are sent a GCSE information booklet urging them to talk to their daughters about homework. They are also asked to check that the children are meeting coursework deadlines; to provide a quiet study area; and to check bags are ready before a school day, and that homework is handed in on time.

“Try to relieve domestic pressure at exam times and encourage the rest of the family to be sympathetic to her needs,” it adds.

Mrs Bishop describes the success of the last 18 months as “like a dripping tap rather than anything wonderful with a magic wand”.

Another important factor has been the hard work of the “dedicated” staff - “You have to be to work in the inner city,” said their head.

Last year’s Year 11, though of the same ability as the previous year, were exceptionally hard-working and may be a hard act to follow.

With only 79 Year 11 pupils in June 1995, the school did not have a large GCSE entry, but as the 1994 exam results were achieved with a similar intake of 80 pupils, Mrs Bishop believes the school has added real value to the pupils’ achievements.

But she believes the Government could help by valuing teachers more. “I think teachers do a fantastic job, with the amount of time and commitment they give, always with the pupils’ interests uppermost. That needs to be valued.

“It is the things that are said, the assumptions that are made - that you can keep piling new things on to teachers and they will just absorb them, and they do. I think Gillian Shephard is much better than her predecessors. In Southwark lots of schools have improved their results. Heads in Southwark have met together and worked together.”

But the pressure is on to do even better. “We have to make sure we don’t decelerate. You can’t have that kind of impetus more than once. The aim now is to consolidate. We are involved in the Investors in People programme. We want to maintain our A* to C grades above 20 per cent, to maintain five A to Gs above 90 per cent, and to keep our attendance above 90 per cent.”