MEET Claire Lillis. She is an unconventional headteacher who has worked in schools across south Essex.

Now, she has taken on the greatest challenge of her life...leading one of Britain’s toughest schools.

Claire will star in a new Channel 5 documentary, Too Tough to Teach, which sees her and her staff take on the extreme behavioural problems of boys who have been expelled and are at risk of ending up behind bars.

But in complete contrast to most schools, there are no rules at the Ian Mikardo School, in London – and the teachers do not use physical restraint.

Ms Lillis, 48, said: “I love a challenge. Life is too short not to be challenged.

“I think I am very human, I think, and I am very real. I don’t see it about winning – I see it about engaging and making progress.

“I refuse to get bogged down in arguments about whether children wear coloured socks, whether their hair is combed properly, whether their books are in a school bag or plastic bag.

“For me, there are far more important conversations to have with children.”

Claire began her schooling life at Holy Family Primary School, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy in Benfleet.

From there, she went on to St Anselm’s Secondary School in Basildon, which later became De La Salle School.

She said: “I did have the choice of going to grammar schools in Westcliff and Southend.

“I don’t know if it was because I was a bit edgy in the Seventies, but I went for Basildon.

“It was its first year being co-educated [with boys] and I thought it was a wonderful school. It was really inspirational and has really contributed to who I am today – both as a person, a teacher and a headteacher.

“With the school, I had the opportunity to go on my own out to Jamaica to live in a convent for a year. I say this nowwith my tattoos and body piercings and people say, ‘what?’ “I taught children who had been placed there by the courts for care.”

On her return ,Claire went to university and went to work in the City.

But with the crash of the markets on Black Wednesday, Claire decided to go back to where she truly wanted to be.

She said: “I had always loved being in schools and always wanted to be a teacher, but I didn’t get my maths O-level.

“I left banking and went back to St Anselm’s to be a teacher. I started off as an instructor and then got my maths qualification and went through a teaching programme.”

Claire taught at De La Salle between 1990 and 1998, becoming head of the history department, and will be fondly remembered by her pupils for her wacky ways.

She said: “My classroom looked like a museum with artefacts and children’s displays of works even on the ceiling. I would also sometimes wear costumes to teach in.”

From there, she went on to the Secure Training Centre in Kent, which teaches children in the prison system.

Her next challenge took her to the Ian Mikardo School, which was in special measures when she joined in 2002, and had lost three headteachers in nine months.

Now 12 years on, she has just seen it through its third outstanding Ofsted and has chosen to open its doors to the viewers of Channel 5.

When asked how her time in Basildon had prepared her for her current role, she said: “I think when teaching in schools in Basildon there are layers of complexity.

“It has layers of disadvantage, but people who do have aspirations.

“If those aspirations are channelled in the right direction, they can become some of the country's greatest entrepreneurs."

The first episode is tonight at 9pm on Channel 5 and will be on again on October 6.