AN AMBITIOUS plan is being implemented to get Tavistock College out of special measures and into the top 25% of schools in the country in the next 18 months.

Acting principal Daryll Chapman, who was drafted in following the resignation of Colin Eves in February, a month before the critical Ofsted report was published, said this week that it was a massive challenge but the action plan had been written with this level of ambition in mind.

'If it all comes to fruition that is the target we have set ourselves. The plan is over five terms and it is front loaded so we can get lots of things up and running as soon as possible.'

Changes include an extended curriculum with a number of new courses, beginning from September, in construction, animal care, science, PE, a certificate of personal effectiveness, and an AS course in Year 10 in critical thinking.

Some of these are specifically geared towards enhancing the curriculum for children with special needs and those who are gifted and talented, something inspectors noted was previously lacking.

Mr Chapman said he was delighted that 36 members of staff had signed up for a professional development course run by the National College for School Leadership as the catalyst for change in any school was at middle management level.

'We have brought in a policy team and are revisiting behaviour management systems, working with feeder primary schools on transitional work and reviewing SEN (special educational needs) which is a massive project. We are also looking at the quality of teaching in lessons.'

Leadership, inconsistencies in teaching, policies and community cohesion were the four areas identified as weaknesses by Ofsted inspectors. The pace of the action plan has gone down well with local authority inspectors who carried out their first monitoring visit last week.

Mr Chapman said since he arrived at the school 12 weeks ago he had seen changes which were a really positive sign for the future.

'Tavistock does not feel like a school that should be in special measures. I worked in a school in special measures ten years ago where only 11% of students achieved five or more A* to C grades, including English and maths in GCSE, and the behaviour was atrocious.

'Last year, Tavistock achieved 50% of A* to C grades at GCSE and if we can increase that by five or six per cent next year then we will be on the right track.

'We live in a data driven world and it's basically a pattern of underachievement over the last two or three years that the college has got to this point.'

Mr Chapman said parents had highlighted behavioural problems at the college but his approach was to engage students more to improve their attitude to learning: 'Overtly poor behaviour is rare and I think what we need to do is help the kids to sharpen their focus. I would like them to approach things with a bit more urgency.'

The school is adopting a new distributed leadership style where all staff are encouraged to be involved: 'Staff feel more empowered and this approach is going down well. I like to think we are reinvigorating the professionalism.'

Mr Chapman is pleased with how the college is progressing. A man passionate about his job he said he would feel slightly sad at having to leave the college so soon. He will return to his post as principal of Okehampton College in September.

'I will have only spent one and a half terms of my life here but it will be difficult to go because my passion to see this school become a good school grows day by day. I will be working with the new assistant head so there is a smooth transition in September and then I will be watching from afar.'

James O'Connell from Lipson Community College has been appointed as assistant head to complement the work of the senior team on the college action plan and the post of principal is being advertised in June with a view to having him or her in post in January.

Mr Chapman said prospective candidates would have to give a term's notice so would be unable to start in September: 'It has taken a while to decide what everyone wants from the new principal,' he said. 'The last thing we want to do is to rush into anything.'