Just 50 days after Saboohi Famili became principal of Epping Forest College, Ofsted inspectors turned up. The inspection didn’t go well. A brawl broke out between students near the entrance to the college.

The “large-scale incident” last November was flagged up in the inspection report, which highlighted the “aggressive behaviour exhibited by a significant minority of learners”. The college was subsequently graded “inadequate” in all areas, with safeguarding highlighted as an area of particular concern.

Under the circumstances, a recently appointed principal could be forgiven for feeling the pressure. But Famili, who sought asylum in the UK in 1999 after falling foul of the political regime in her home country of Iran, is used to coping with the unexpected. She exudes a calm confidence that the college - which has been rated “inadequate” twice in the past decade - is on the road to recovery.

“We are at the beginning of our journey; there is no question about that,” she says. “But the atmosphere of the college is not one of doom and gloom. It is of a college that knows that the only way is up, and everybody is willing to do the hard work and get the job done.”

Child of the revolution

Famili was only eight years old when the Iranian Revolution broke out. Her parents fled to London, leaving her to be cared for by her grandparents 3,000 miles away.

None of her immediate family ever returned to live in Iran. Famili remained in her home country but it was through her father, who was fascinated with mechanics, that she developed a passion for engineering. As a child, she would make things like door bells and light switches, always loving the idea of creating something and the sense of accomplishment she felt when it was finished.

“Engineers are the most creative people you can think of,” she says. “They are artists who make things happen. And I was always fascinated by that.”

Her creative passion led her to pursue a career in engineering, and she eventually became an assistant professor at the University of Tehran.

But further social unrest in Iran - the student protests of 1999 - changed the course of Famili’s life. When the demonstrations began, she was visiting her father in London, who was receiving experimental drug therapy after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

‘The college knows the only way is up, and everybody is willing to do the hard work’

Famili learned that her colleagues and students at the university had been imprisoned by the country’s notorious “morality police”, and that her name had been given out as someone who had instigated the unrest.

“[They said I had] been outspoken against the morality police,” Famili explains. “To some extent, I always had some difference of opinion with them, but it was not political. It was mainly to do with freedom of speech and equality for women…in an environment where women’s rights aren’t [something that’s] highly respected or tolerated.”

Realising that returning to Iran was not an option, Famili immediately applied for asylum. It was then, by a quirk of fate, that her journey into FE began. Asylum regulations prevented her from gaining employment for the first six months of her stay. So she enrolled at Merton College (now South Thames College) to study accountancy.

She was quickly offered her first job in the UK, a part-time role in teaching. But, struggling to make ends meet, she also worked for the IT help desk of an insurance company - a job that she describes as one of the hardest she has ever done.

“I would have people from Glasgow, from Newcastle, from Wales and from Northern Ireland calling, really irate, with very thick, strong accents of their locality,” Famili explains. “And all I could say was, ‘Pardon?’ Every night for six months, I came home and I cried myself to sleep.”

Leading by example

Then her luck changed. Merton College called and offered her a full-time position teaching electronics and IT. She went on to study for a master’s in educational leadership and management, and then worked her way up the college’s managerial ladder. At the age of 35 - and six years after arriving in the UK - she became principal of nearby Sutton College.

Famili later became principal of Guernsey College of Further Education, before taking the top job at Epping Forest College in Loughton, Essex, in September.

It quickly became apparent that Famili had a challenge on her hands, not least when she received the call from Ofsted. “I remember the lead inspector asking me, ‘What impact do you think you’ve had? You’ve been here 50 days’,” she recalls. “I was thinking, ‘Who’s counting?’ ”

Famili stresses that she has no intention of running away from the challenge. “To any engineer, the harder the brief they need to solve, when they solve it, it is the biggest sense of achievement. And that, throughout my life, has been the case,” she says.

Since the inspection, a “myriad of initiatives” have been introduced to improve the quality of the college, she says. These include increasing the staff presence around the site and new ID for students to help them feel safe.

Famili has also forsaken her principal’s office, seeing it as an ivory tower; instead, she now prefers to work in the foyer, where staff and students can come up to her and ask questions.

“I have been working tirelessly to transform the culture of the organisation from one of blame and hiding to be one of openness and transparency,” she explains. “I very proudly can claim that this has made a massive difference in the attitude of staff, in the way that they approach problems.

“There is no hiding place, there is openness and transparency about problems, and a good level of will and dedication to get it right.”

@willmartie