The West Yorkshire secondary hit the headlines in 1996 — a year after it was formed by merging two schools — when staff threatened to strike unless 60 pupils were disciplined or expelled. A supply teacher had allegedly been groped and a brick was said to have been thrown at the new head teacher, who resigned.

By 1997, the school was the pet project of the Labour Government. Anna White was appointed head teacher in 1997. The school received £6 million, became the target of various initiatives, had 14 visits from inspectors in two years and a succession of ministers praised its remarkable turnaround.

By October 1998, the Ridings, where 42 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals and 45 per cent have special educational needs, was taken off the list of failing schools. Ofsted praised its “remarkable transformation”.

Mrs White was appointed a CBE in 2000. Tony Blair visited the next year during the general election campaign.

By 2003, 25 per cent of pupils gained five or more A*-C GCSE grades, up from 3 per cent in 1998. But within a year, the GCSE pass rate had fallen to 14 per cent. Mrs White left last year to become an educational consultant.

Ofsted paid a sudden visit last autumn, shortly after a new head teacher had been appointed. The report was damning. The Ridings was given a “notice to improve” and warned that special measures could follow.

The school had only recently ended its participation in yet another Labour initiative, the three-year Octet programme under which eight schools joined a research project “to find new and innovative ways to raise standards” in “exceptionally challenging circumstances”.

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