A group of schools in northern England has been awarded coveted Teaching School Alliance status. Paul Wilkinson investigates how the schools, which were struggling five years ago, achieved the turnaround In 2009, St Francis Catholic Primary in Bradford, West Yorkshire, was put into special measures. Shortly afterwards, with the threat of closure by Ofsted still hanging over the school, Daniel Copley arrived to take over the reins as head teacher.St Francis was not the only Catholic school in the area facing problems, as three other local primaries had been graded inadequate and a further eight required improvement. Taking up the challenge to sort out the failing schools, Copley and his fellow head teachers in the area agreed to work together to help everyone improve. To this end they for