Martin Tissot. Picture: Tony Gay

The headteachers at some of Haringey’s most-improved schools reflect on what they mean for the future.

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Martin Tissot was brought in as acting head teacher at St Thomas More School, in Glendale Avenue, Wood Green, in 2010. He told the Journal at the time he would instil discipline and drive up achievement.

He said last week: “[The result] shows outstanding progress. My trademark is I absolutely insist on excellent pupil behaviour and discipline, because pupils can’t make progress if there is any nonsense or mucking about..

“There were some radical changes but I think what’s very pleasing is that I found the staff and pupils so ready to work hard and succeed. In fact it has been possible to bring about that substantial turnaround so quickly.

“I confidently predict we are going to have another big jump again this year. All the signs are there.

“We have after-school and Saturday revision classes. We are doing everything we can to bring our performance up. The plan is that the school becomes outstanding and matches the progress of St George’s [Catholic School in west London’s Maida Vale].”

Mr Tissot remains part-time headteacher at St George’s, which saw 58 per cent of pupils get at least the GCSE benchmark.

He added: “Both schools have done extraordinarily well given the context in which we operate.”

David Hearn, vice principal at Greig City Academy, said: “I think the key thing is that different schools will improve at different rates. From our point of view we were pleased with the seven per cent improvement. We anticipate that results will continue to rise this year.

“Ofsted has looked at our results and said that the GCSE results are better than expected.”

He added: “At Greig City Academy we believe in giving students a broad and balanced curriculum, which will prepare them for sixth form and higher education.”

Patrick Cozier, headteacher at Highgate Wood school in Montenotte Road, Crouch End, said: “The huge 22pc increase in five A*-Cs including English and maths is a culmination of the hard work of my staff and students over a sustained period of time.

“We are pleased that this was reinforced by our recent Ofsted inspection where we were judged to be a good and improving school. We are determined to push on and do even better this year.”