The techniques of Monty Roberts, the so-called Horse Whisperer immortalised by Robert Redford in the Hollywood blockbuster film, have been used to turn around a failing primary school in Birmingham.
The similarities between small children and horses may not be immediately obvious but the teachers at the Kingshurst Junior School credit Roberts's equestrian philosophies for transforming their sink school into a beacon establishment.
'Many people find it very odd to compare children with horses but when I first heard Monty's theories, I realised that if you substituted the word child every time he used the word horse, you had the most inspired model of teaching I had ever come across,' said Stephen Taylor, the teacher who introduced Roberts's concepts to King shurst two years ago.
Although Kingshurst is based in Solihull, a middle-class suburb of Birmingham, more than 40 per cent of its students receive free school dinners and half are on the special needs register. In 1995, it was condemned by Ofsted and it was threatened with closure. Today, however, it boasts the best exam results in the area.
'Roberts's philosophy was simply that positive actions should be rewarded by positive consequences and negative actions by negative consequences,' said Taylor. 'By extending what he said to apply to children, I came up with the idea of contracts written and signed by the students and teachers containing mutually agreed rules, punishments and rewards.'
Taylor persuaded the school's headmaster, Jeff Darby, to give his new technique a chance. 'The school was failing; no one wanted to come to work in Kingshurst, morale was low and behaviour extremely poor,' said Darby. 'We were looking everywhere for successful models to follow and when we discovered Monty, we never looked back.'
Gradually the school improved; in 2000 it received a coveted Charter Mark, last year it entered Britain's top 400 schools and this year, it was awarded Beacon status.
Last September, Taylor emailed Roberts to tell him of his success and Roberts, who had tried for years to persuade US schools to adopt his theories on non-confrontational human relationships, was so delighted he flew over.
'I'm proud of the children and teachers here,' he said during his second visit to the school last week. 'The students have been transformed into bright, inquiring and focused children.'
Having successfully bought up 47 foster children alongside his own three children, Roberts, who has just published his second book, Horse Sense For People, is a firm believer in the impact a philosophy of non-violence can have on human beings.
'Why does it seem so funny to compare children to horses?' asked Roberts, a cross between old-time cowboy and new age guru, whose methods were praised by the Queen in 1986. 'The use of demeaning and coercive tactics to control children is rampant in every school in our society despite it being a tactic that is totally ineffective,' he said.
'Children, just like horses, instinctively read and understand body language, which is a skill we lose as we grow up,' he said. 'The tactics for teaching children and horses are the same: both are flight animals who flee when threatened. But if you communicate and negotiate with them, they will choose to accept your guidance.
'If we can observe horses and their behavioural patterns, we can learn what children need to feel secure enough to take responsibility for their own behaviour.'