Anna White: "There was a positive atmosphere"

She said the children had felt this was "their Ofsted".

"The emphasis is so much on now the quality of learning that the children really took it to heart and understood that it was for them as well and that they had a part to play, a major part," she said.

The most important thing had been improving the teaching quality. Three quarters of the staff have joined within the past five years.

Despite hard work on the part of the school, attendance has improved only a little and is stubbornly remaining very low at 82.5%

Ofsted report

A major programme of building work had made students and staff feel better about their environment.

The key issue of discipline was in fact resolved quite early on in the recovery process, Ms White said.

Staff went back into the corridors and put on activities at lunchtimes and after school, and gave the children a sense of belonging and self-worth - it was better to smile than to crack a whip.

Friendly

A friendlier atmosphere had been created. This is something the inspectors comment on favourably - as do students themselves.

Fifteen-year-old Samantha remembers being sent home as the school closed, just three weeks after she had started there.

"It was really intimidating because we didn't know whether they were going to open the school again," she said.

"It's changed a lot. You can get on with the teachers more than you could.

Pearllynder: "You can see the changes"

Sixteen-year-old Pearllynder was also sent home as a first year.

"But when we came back it all started changing," she said.

"It's fantastic now. I'm really glad I came."

Another Year 11 student, Sam, came only two years ago - with some trepidation, having seen reports of the schools' troubles on television.

Sam: "Best move I ever made"

"I think it's one of the best moves I ever made, coming here, because of the wonderful facilities and the pupil-teacher relationship."

Sixth former Kuljinder, a business studies student, has been at the school throughout his secondary years.

"It was mostly all blown out of proportion, it was a fine school back then," he said.

Kuljinder: "It was blown out of proportion"

He did feel that outsiders looked down on him because of the school's reputation, whereas he was at least as good as they were academically.

"Now I feel that we're one of the great schools in Britain."

The Ridings has some way to go yet. Its GSCE results, although much improved, are still very low: 9% got the top grades last year, against a national average of 49%.

Attendance and punctuality remain "poor" and behaviour is still an issue for a third of the small number of parents who responded to Ofsted's invitation to comment on the school.

Behaviour is good although "younger students have not all adjusted to the need to walk rather than run"

Many of the more able students locally are taken by two selective grammar schools and two church schools.

Conversely, many of those who go into The Ridings have very low levels of achievement.

"Although many students are not reaching the level of national expectation, they are making progress from the point at which they came to the school, that is, they are achieving well in relation to their prior attainment," says the Ofsted report.

Standards of literacy throughout the school are mixed but overall are well below average

Ofsted report

The man who led the inspection team which decided in 1996 that The Ridings was failing was Mike Tomlinson - now England's chief inspector of schools.

Mr Tomlinson has sent his personal congratulations to the staff, governors and pupils for the "splendid achievement" reflected in the latest report.

"I know they will continue working hard towards ever higher standards," he said.

Publicity

Reflecting on all that has happened, Anna White thinks that, in a way, the bad publicity The Ridings attracted did some good.

"Although it's very hard to say this I think the school probably benefited from the fact that we hit the media in such a big way, because we couldn't be ignored," she said.

"The resources that are needed to be poured into a school to achieve this sort of turnaround came our way.

"Money doesn't solve problems but it actually helps you find solutions to the problems."