JOY was pretty nearly unconfined when this summer’s GCSE and A- level results arrived at All Saints’ Church of England Academy, Dun­stable; and there was, perhaps, some justification. The academy opened a year ago this month, replacing a com­munity upper school that had experi­enced more than its share of prob­lems, and had spent too long in special measures.

This time last year, the academy principal, Tom Waterhouse, told stu­dents and staff that things were about to change. And against all the odds — and they were considerable, since most of the students had also spent their middle-school years in the shadow of special measures — they seem to have believed him.

But justification lay in the results. On 24 August, Mr Waterhouse was able to announce that the All Saints’ tally of GCSE passes at A-C was more than double that of the predecessor school. Moreover, one third of the stu­dents had gained three or more passes at A* and A.

The A-level results told a similar story. Everyone who had had the con­fidence to apply to university had secured a place. “The sixth-form entry was small,” Mr Waterstone admits, “but they did better than they im­agined was possible. Next year, there’ll be more sixth-formers, and they’ll do better still.”

Houghton Regis is not one of those areas that is a byword for problems. Now merged with Dunstable, it was a traditional Bedfordshire village, enlarged after the Second World War by London overspill estates. It is a pocket of disadvantage, affected by generational unemploy­ment and everything that goes with it: financial poverty, poverty of aspira­tion, and the sense that, whatever you do, nothing changes.

This was why the diocese of St Albans was willing to join the Uni­versity of Bedfordshire and the local council in an effort to provide better educational opportunities for the families who live there.

Mr Waterhouse is a practising Roman Catholic who had headed a flourishing specialist technology school in Corby. He told his staff be­fore the academy opened: “There’s nothing wrong with these children. It’s the adults that have got things wrong. It’s our job to put things right.”

Teachers and, when they arrived, the students were told that a dras­tically different “climate for learning” was being created. It meant observing and enforcing the rules. Absenteeism and lateness were out. So was bad be­haviour.

Teachers were encouraged to plan more engaging lessons, make better relationships with their students, and take responsibility for their class­rooms. Previously, discipline had been taken over by separate staff. It did not suit everyone: a few teachers left; a few boys and girls were excluded. But within months, by persistent, pain­s-taking insistence, the new climate took hold.

WORD got out. A handful of students who had left for other pastures re­turned during the year. And when the time came round for families to choose an upper school for their teenagers, a majority named All Saints’. For most of the 2009 intake, the academy was their third choice. For those starting this term, more than 90 per cent had put it first.

And there is the new building to look forward to. All Saints’ is cur­rently housed on the site of its pre­decessor school, a group of poorly maintained 1950s buildings showing the results of more than half a century’s hard wear. The halt to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in the summer put fund­ing on hold. The academy held its breath while sponsors and governors argued its case — forcefully. Then, just before the end of term, the go-ahead was given. In two years, All Saints’ will have a home worthy of its new sense of pride.

ALL SAINTS’ is a church school; so Mr Waterhouse and the governors felt it needed a full-time chaplain — and one with a strong place in the leadership team as assistant vice-principal. Students took part in the interviews, and their unanimous choice was the Revd Alasdair Coles.

And there is the new building to look forward to. All Saints’ is cur­rently housed on the site of its pre­decessor school, a group of poorly maintained 1950s buildings showing the results of more than half a century’s hard wear. The halt to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in the summer put fund­ing on hold. The academy held its breath while sponsors and governors argued its case — forcefully. Then, just before the end of term, the go-ahead was given. In two years, All Saints’ will have a home worthy of its new sense of pride.

ALL SAINTS’ is a church school; so Mr Waterhouse and the governors felt it needed a full-time chaplain — and one with a strong place in the leadership team as assistant vice-principal. Students took part in the interviews, and their unanimous choice was the Revd Alasdair Coles.

He was an unusual applicant. Until then he had had what he calls “a career in ancient monuments”: Wy­mondham Abbey, where he served his title; and St Paul’s Cathedral, where he was a minor canon. He had been Vicar of two central-London churches, and a priest-vicar at Westminster Abbey, a position he retains.

An academy chaplaincy in Hough­ton Regis was not the obvious next step, but the more friends tried to dis­suade him, the keener he was. “I wanted a pastoral job where I felt there was real need. And, anyway, you need some left-field thinking to be a Chris­tian.” Moreover, he had originally trained as a science teacher, experi­ence which enables him to “bowl the odd googly” in the class­room.

Creating a church aca­demy out of a failing school takes more than re­branding, Fr Coles says. “Most of our students don’t have experience of church, let alone active membership; many had initial misgivings about sponsorship from the dio­cese, too. So the steps we’ve taken so far have attemp­ted to calm concerns and build relationships of trust.

“My role as chaplain is therefore not to pro­sely-tise but to encourage the flourishing of all mem­bers of our community, which involves some gentle exposure to the tradition of faith that the Church of England holds, not its imposition,” he says.

“Although many secondary schools do not achieve anything like a broadly Christian act of worship each day, it is an aspiration towards which we aim. Many schools, like ours, don’t have a single space big enough for everyone, which presents a major barrier. So we contacted the chaplain of a more established church academy who helped us find resources for worship through the IT outlets that are present in every room: networked computers, data pro­jectors, and whiteboards.

“Generally, the content of our col­lective worship encourages our stu­dents and staff to think deeply about life’s challenges and the decisions they make. Since many young people, our students included, are surprisingly open to philosophical and ethical questions, I usually avoid overtly reli­gious language,” Fr Coles says.

“Anglicanism is amenable to this with its ‘threefold core’ of scripture, reason, and tradition, and it’s sur­prising how often questions about life, rela­tionships, or community can be broadened through history and culture with their weft and warp of faith, and then sealed with a sentence of scripture.

“Eventually a greater appreciation of metaphysical things will enable us to put out into deeper water.”