The headteacher of the Menorah Grammar School in Edgware will hand over the reins at the end of the summer term after a year in charge.

Rachel Hanison was drafted in as head of the independent Strictly Orthodox boys’ secondary school after a scathing Ofsted report last year.

“It really is a different school,” she said. “We’ve revamped it from top to bottom, from education to building to safeguarding”. Ofsted, which had recently carried out a fresh inspection, had now recognised the “wholesale transformation” of the school, she said.

Mrs Hanison, who had previously headed the school’s special education unit, took over as head after the school was branded “dysfunctional” by Ofsted.

But she explained she now wanted to return to working directly with children.

Menorah’s religious principal, Rabbi Dovid Sulzbacher, will also leave his role at the end of the school year.