The CEO of the Inspiration Trust tells Jeremy Sutcliffe that it is to her Jesuit education that she owes her phenomenal success in turning around failing schools Rachel de Souza prides herself on being a bit of a doer. She has a ­reputation for tenacity and is not afraid of breaking down doors to get things done. Still only in her mid-forties, she has turned around two of the country’s lowest-performing secondary schools and her success as a dynamic school leader was recognised when she was made a dame in the 2014 New Year Honours list.Her rise to national prominence began in 2006 when she was appointed principal of Barnfield West Academy in Luton, Bedfordshire, one of the first of Tony Blair’s new breed of independent state schools. Within a year she had turned a formerl