Marie Margaret Stubbs was born in Glasgow, and became head teacher at Douay Martyrs School in Ickenham.
[2] The school had been put on "special measures" by Ofsted, meaning that it was considered to be well below standard and subject to regular inspection.
The students had serious behavioural problems and there was low morale among the staff, due in part to the murder of a previous headmaster, Philip Lawrence, who was stabbed to death when intervening in a fight at the school gates.
[4] As a result, Lady Stubbs was asked to leave retirement and given a contract of seventeen months to reform the school or it would face closure.
[5] Seventeen months after her appointment as headmistress, the school was taken off special measures, once believed to be impossible by some and was no longer considered to be failing.