A head teacher who transformed a failing city secondary has been hired as an education guru to help poorly-performing schools.

Liam Nolan, head at Perry Beeches School in Great Barr, Birmingham, has been appointed a National Leader in Education (NLE) to share the secrets of his success with struggling schools across the country.

Perry Beeches was threatened with closure only four years ago, when just 21 per cent of students were achieving five A*- C grades including English and maths.

Mr Nolan was given one year to turn the school around by Ofsted after inspectors deemed the school to be “failing” in 2007.

Last summer, the comprehensive school saw its pass rate soar to 74 per cent, which earned it the tag of “most improved” school in the country.

Perry Beeches has now been named as a leading national support school, with Mr Nolan’s new role taking him to schools across England, using his expertise to drive improvement and help raise standards.

Mr Nolan, who has worked at the school since April 2007, said: “All our team at Perry Beeches has worked very hard to change the life chances of our students and this community. For us to be asked to support other schools struggling to do the same is a real privilege.

“Yes I will be out and about more, helping other colleagues turn around their schools, however I remain the head teacher here at Perry Beeches.

“We have an amazing senior team who run our school day-to-day so that gives me some flexibility to share our success with other schools and students.”

Mr Nolan was appointed to his new role by the National College of School Leaders, which works to develop school senior staff.