Back in 2008, Dame Sally Coates had no intention of swapping her job, leading a small outstanding Catholic school, for the daunting task of turning around a large failing inner-city comprehensive.

Today she laughs and describes her decision to do exactly that as “absolute madness”.

But she found Sir Michael Wilshaw - the current Ofsted chief inspector who was then education director at the Ark academy trust - too persuasive. He made a personal visit to her school in Southwark, south London, and talked her into going to see the tough challenge on offer at Burlington Danes Academy, in the west of the capital, for herself.

“I thought, ‘My goodness, this school should not be failing,’” she remembers. “I just felt it had so much potential.”

The moment of “madness” paid off. It was her transformation of Burlington Danes from special measures to outstanding that made her reputation; former education secretary Michael Gove described her as a “superhead” and her success led eventually to her damehood, which she was awarded in 2013.

But Dame Sally hadn’t always wanted to be a headteacher. It was only after 25 years of teaching that she even began to consider it.

“There’s no rush to headship,” she says. “Nowadays, it feels like if you’re not a head by 40 then you’ve missed the boat. That’s really not true.”

And it hasn’t always been an entirely smooth ride for the renowned school leader. Dame Sally went for half-a-dozen headship interviews before securing the role at Sacred Heart, in Camberwell. Ironically, she was criticised for being “too hands-on” - a personality trait that helped her turn around Burlington Danes.

Going in ‘all guns blazing’

“Sometimes, I don’t think they look for the right qualities. They look for the grey suits, the briefcase and the very smart man,” Dame Sally says. “I think I came over too ‘Be out at the school gate’ and they wanted somebody who was more office-based.”

Despite her initial doubts about working at Burlington Danes, Dame Sally decided to go in “all guns blazing”. By the end of her first term, she’d already changed the curriculum, uniform and staffing.

And not long after, tougher discipline procedures and more rigorous testing were introduced. “I felt I had to be the hero head, leading my troops into battle,” she says.

The school leader also made a controversial decision to publish her pupils’ academic achievements, ranked in order, on the walls of the school each term. But Dame Sally insists that no parent ever complained about this in her time as head. She says it would become a “family celebration” if their child moved up the order.

“There would be a riot to see it,” she says. “It’s the most wonderful thing when children can’t wait to see how they have done. People are always so scared about it and it really works. If anything transformed Burlington Danes, that did.”

Dame Sally, now the director of academies in the south of England for United Learning, has helped heads to implement the system in a number of the schools across the multi-academy trust (MAT). “I think it would work in any school but the key thing is you have to introduce it carefully,” she says.

An educational long-view

During her two years in her current role, Dame Sally has been working closely with 17 heads, whom she calls her “friends”, to improve performance in schools across England, from Oxfordshire to Dorset. She has also been busy visiting prisons across the country after Mr Gove, when he was justice secretary, asked her to review education provision behind bars.

Following the Coates Review, published in May, prison governors will now be given control of their education budgets and curriculum, and will be held to account for educational outcomes. But despite her report leading to such changes, Dame Sally admits that the prison review took her out of her comfort zone.

More than four in 10 adult prisoners report having been permanently excluded from school, she says. “What you see in prison is society’s failure, education’s failure and parental failure - seeing that end of things has made me develop a long view of what happens.”

It is carrying out additional work like this alongside her day job that inspires Dame Sally. Earlier this year, she was approached to apply for the role of Ofsted chief inspector to replace Sir Michael on his retirement. But she decided not to go for it as she wanted the “freedom to do other things”.

She does not give away any specific future plans, but it is clear that she will continue her campaign to change the school admissions system because she fears that the status quo is damaging social mobility.

“[It is the] thing I feel most strongly about at the moment,” she says. “It is absolutely in need of a huge overhaul. I feel very angry about admissions.”

Boosting social mobility

Dame Sally wants to see a review group set up and the publication of a wider list of admissions rules that schools have to abide by. For example, schools could be required to take in a certain percentage of pupil-premium children that reflects the level of deprivation in their local area, she says (see box, “The poor children get left behind”, below).

“If schools do break the admissions code, then there should be more consequences,” she says. “I don’t think it should be left to schools and academy trusts. It should be centrally overseen.”

The government’s push towards a fully academised education system, with more and more schools controlling their own admissions, means there has never been a more important time to change the system, Dame Sally believes.

One might think academisation would also offer her plenty of scope to take on a more senior role. Her high profile and track record would seem to make Dame Sally an obvious MAT chief executive and major player in this rapidly developing brave new world. However she fears that such a role could be too admin-heavy.

“I still really miss the buzz of giving an assembly and saying ‘Tuck your shirt in’,” the 63-year-old says. “I suppose it is back to the practical hands-on. I still like being in schools. I am not sure whether I’d want to be any more removed from it.

@Eleanor_Busby