THE headteacher of Dines Green Primary School Marlene Cooper is what I call a "tracksuit manager" and I don't just mean that she wears the school's polo shirt instead of a suit, but also in her hands-on approach.

Mrs Cooper joined the school in September 1997, just months before it was failed by Ofsted inspectors.

But within the allotted two years she has turned the school around and brought it off Special Measures.

Faced with low behavioural and academic standards Mrs Cooper decided to tackle both immediately.

"The report had a lot of major issues, which were interconnected," she says. "Until behaviour is right you can't get results up.

"It was very ambitious, but we pulled it off. Full credit to the staff as they had a lot to take on board."

The school enthusiastically threw itself into the National Literacy Scheme and Numeracy Strategy, for which it was a pilot school, and now results in both have risen considerably.

"I can understand why some people don't like them, but for us here they were good. It gave us a framework to work to and they came at just the right time. The schemes of work meant we didn't have to reinvent the wheel."

Surprisingly there have been few staff changes at the school since it was failed - only four teachers have left, two were temporary and two promoted.

It suggests that the school never suffered from bad teaching, just bad management and Mrs Cooper seems to agree.

"The staff needed schemes of work and a whole-school approach to curriculum and behaviour issues and once given that and a supportive management team we were able to go from there," she says.

"I think they are grateful for the chance to show they can do it. They have worked their socks off and I'm surprised we haven't had staff illness."

Behaviour was a big issue. Inspectors found children fighting in the corridors and described some as rude and aggressive.

First off Mrs Cooper put in place a whole-school behaviour policy. Rules are now clearly displayed throughout the school and a system of rewards and sanctions is operated by all staff.

Within months of its introduction inspectors already considered behaviour to no longer be a major issue.

"Our children will always be boisterous in outside play, it's their nature," she says. "But in lesson times they are still, listening to the teacher and learning.

"Being high profile helps. The children know I'm watching and they know they'll be praised for behaving well and that's certainly something I didn't see here before."

Children are still excluded.

"The children have to know when we say something we mean it," said Mrs Cooper. "A couple of times that's been a hard lesson - for parents as well. But people tell me that the whole atmosphere of the school has changed. It's calmer and the children now realise they have come to school to work."

So did Mrs Cooper ever doubt her ability to turn Dines Green Primary around?

"In the first year I had my doubts as to whether I had taken on more than I was able to do," she confesses.

"But then once things started moving, and we started to see small improvements we began to think yes we can do it."

She contributes much of her success to the support and encouragement of Worcestershire LEA.

"There have been some horrendously low moments, but we did have a lot of support. Our patch inspector Graham Warren was supportive all along.

"He has listened to what we have said. If there's a problem we would explain it to him, outline the support we thought we needed and he would always listen to our requests. I don't thing he ever said no.

"I just hope now that the support will continue. We are off Special Measures, but we still have the same pupils, the problems don't disappear overnight."

Mrs Cooper, who leaves for semi-retirement in August, admits that the task ahead for her replacement won't be plain sailing. The school's failure saw many of the more able pupils leave.

"We've some very able children in the school and we are working with those, but we do have a large percentage of children who are below average.

"We will be striving all the time to get them up to national average, but we really don't think it's a realistic objective.

"The children all know Level 4 is the one to get. They are all striving for it. That's the nice thing about our children now, they are asking 'how many points off Level 4 am I?'

"We don't sit back and put our feet up. There's still a lot more to be done."