I sat there for a bit and watched the life of the school. Gaggles of pupils promenaded along the walkways between lessons, made for the lunch area, or sat in groups. The occasional big-brotherish PA announcement issued instructions - time to do this or that, and don't forget the other. Secondary schools are nearly always slightly alarming places for outsiders, because all educational establishments are private kingdoms, their workings known only to the initiates, while groups of loud, jostling teenage kids are scary at the best of times. But this school is now pretty much self-explanatory, while all that space means that you can stand away from the rush. It feels more like a new university building than an old comp. It's not perfect - there are one or two rubbish-traps created by the new interventions, for instance, and all that sophisticated new architecture inside makes the shabby outside look even shabbier - but it functions smoothly and it feels great.

This is important. They are going to monitor results from now on, but I'd be amazed if a school environment that has been so radically improved didn't have some positive effects on people's sense of well being and behaviour. I'd expect the figures to improve and misdemeanours to decrease. Time will tell. In the meantime, the important lesson is that it's not just endless educational initiatives that can turn a school round. You really can take a sow's ear of a school building and make a silk purse out of it.

www.drmm.co.uk - architects to watch