THE headteacher who transformed a failing superschool is retiring after turning it around.

Martin Burgess was brought into Shuttleworth College to pull it out of special measures in March 2008 after his predecessor Andrew Mackenzie quit the Padiham school.

Mr Burgess said this year he would leave on a high as predicted grades show a minimum of 40 per cent of pupils will gain five A* to C passes including English and maths, a big improvement for the school.

And he said he was confident that students in the following year at the Burnley Road school could see passes as high as 60 per cent.

He said the upward trend would be continued by his successor Robert Wakefield who takes charge of the school from September.

To help with the transition Mr Wakefield has been in and out of the school since April to get to grips with the school, students and the teachers.

Mr Burgess, who had a long history in East Lancashire after working in Edge End High School, Nelson, from 1992-2007, said: “This year we should achieve our best ever results. If this school was inspected today I am confident they would find outstanding features at the very least.

“One of my successes has been coming out of special measures. I remember the look on the kids and staff faces when we did it. The only person who knows the hard work that goes into transforming a school in Gill Broom at Hameldon Community College.”

Hameldon came out of special measures in 2009. However last week it emerged draft Ofsted inspection reports had given it a notice to improve, while Blessed Trinity RC College is to be put into special measures.

But Mr Burgess said the schools, created under the £250million Building Schools for the Future scheme, had a lot to offer.

He added: “Headship is a hard job.

“The schools in Burnley have so much to offer young people and the community.”

Mr Burgess added: “Edge End was very special to me. It was a family and was the height of my career. I really loved it. It was traumatic when I didn’t get the headship post at Marsden Heights.”

At Edge End High School, which closed under the BSF scheme, Mr Burgess turned white flight at the school on its head.

The 98 per cent Asian population soon became a 50-50 per cent split after he implement an all-faith policy at the school where students were given a dedicated time period to celebrate every faith from humanism to Wicca and Islam to Christianity.