JUST a few years ago some pupils leaving primary school were left in tears when they discovered they had been allocated a place at Oxford Spires Academy. Now youngsters cry when they find out they have not got in.

It is just one example of how the school in Glanville Road, East Oxford, has been transformed under the leadership of Sue Croft, who is retiring after seven years in charge.

The 58-year-old is the only person to have ever been principal of Oxford Spires, having taken over shortly before it replaced the Oxford School.

Since then it has shot to near the top of GCSE and A-Level league tables and is oversubscribed due to the positive reputation it enjoys with both parents and prospective pupils.

Those who do get a place are easily spotted across the city thanks to their deep purple uniforms, one of many changes implemented by Mrs Croft when she joined after 17 years at the Kennet School in Thatcham, Berkshire.

She recalls: “It was so exciting, the prospect that you could design your school.

“At most schools the governors are pleased with how it is going and the head has got a way of working. Part of the challenge in getting the job is making sure you are promising them you could continue what is already started.

“But at Spires they said I could change anything I liked, I could design the school as I wanted right down to the uniform, the structures, the house system, standards, behaviour, everything.

“And I had £8.2m to spend on buildings, that was such fun.”

When the mother-of-two took over the Oxford School was rated ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted - now known as ‘requires improvement’. Now Spires is rated ‘good’ - the second highest ranking - and there have been dramatic improvements not just in academic performance but in behaviour.

Mrs Croft puts this partly down to her introduction of a house system, something she took from her previous school.

As with the colour of the uniform, the names of the new houses were left largely to the pupils.

They opted for Bannister, Earhart, Seacole and Tolkien - representing historic figures in Oxford’s history and in the fields of medicine, aviation, literature and sport.

Mrs Croft says: “The house system was initially really important because it was not a very safe place in the early days and children gathered together in ethnic groups that either became little safety groups or gangs.

“Houses split that into four positive centres of belonging and immediately cut through that culture.

“You get pride in competition and it means the children really push themselves. The house drama competition every year is better and better.

“Nobody wants to look like the fourth really weak one so everybody gets to a phenomenal standard and thinks, blimey, I have to do better than that next year.”

But success at any school is not just about one person, and Mrs Croft is quick to heap praise on all the staff at Spires - both teaching and non-teaching - as well as the board of governors and CfBT trust, which runs the school.

Her philosophy is influenced by the book Legacy, by James Kerr, which explores the success of the New Zealand All Blacks and the lessons the rugby union side can have for the rest of society.

She says: “It’s about creating a culture and a place where people want to be and give it their all. It is about a sense of moral purpose.

“At Spires it really was all about the quality of teaching and the quality of teachers and the relationships those teachers had with the pupils.

“It was about what happened in the classroom. The people you want to be solving issues are the teachers in the classroom.”

Mrs Croft’s decision to retire after more than three decades in the classroom comes after the birth of her first grandson, Israel, in November last year.

She will look after him three days a week and is taking a three-and-a-half week break to visit South Africa later this year.

She is also looking forward to spending time with her dog and her husband, David, who works part-time in IT.

She says: “My mind is completely open, after a year I might feel I have another failing school in me.

“Somebody else has mentioned doing a bit of work in Brunei, I might do that.

“I will miss the job massively and my life will feel quite empty but it is the right time.

“It is the right time for me because of my grandson and it is the right time for the school as well.

“If something is working really well - and it is - it is at the top of its game and it is the best it has ever been, you need to change it .

“If there is going to be real change it needs somebody fresh to lead it because you become blind to the things that are good.”