A school that was deemed one of the worst in Britain has been given an ‘outstanding’ rating after its new headteacher banned pupils from shrugging, sighing and rolling their eyes.

Harris Academy Battersea, in Wandsworth, London, was plagued by some of the poorest exam rates in the country and it had a deep rooted problem with discipline.

In 2003 just three percent of pupils achieved five GCSE passes - in one year no pupils did at all - and in 1995, 500 pupils rioted.

But when Dave Moody was hired as headteacher in 2014 he brought in with him a strict new approach to discipline.

He revealed he welled up when he saw the most recent Ofsted report, published on the secondary school’s website recently, after four years trying to raise standards.

“We have some of the poorest children in London and we meet them with a private-school set of expectations,” he told the Evening Standard. “They are sanctioned if they roll their eyes, shrug, sigh or do anything that says they are not ready to learn.”

Formerly known as Battersea Park School and Battersea Technology College, the school had to become a Harris Academy in 2014 after it was deemed inadequate.

In one year no pupils gained five or more GCSE passes. In 1995, 500 pupils rioted in the streets.

The key was a new approach to discipline. When a child misbehaves, he or she is taken by a senior staff member to a room to write down their version of events and is not allowed to return to class all day. Moody decides on the punishment.

At first about 50 students a day were sent to the interview room. Now it is two or three.  

In 2003 three per cent of children left with five A-C GCSEs. Last year it was 83 per cent. Four years ago there were 69 pupils in year seven. This September, 195 are due to start and the school is oversubscribed.

The Ofsted report on March 12, the first since the school became an academy, praised his ‘uncompromising determination’. It said teachers were proud to work there, morale was high and pupils of all abilities make ‘very strong progress’.