Rob Meakin's school has been recognised for raising achievement

The typical view of a Richmond-upon-Thames primary school might be a sought-after, high-scoring institution, tucked away in streets filled with high-income, two-Volvo families.

And if you walk through a well-to-do place like Teddington, you can see children's T-shirts in the shop window with the only slightly ironic slogan "My daddy's rich and my mother's good looking".

But London is filled with sharp social contrasts. And if you go across the river to Ham, only a matter of a few minutes walk away from Teddington, there is an island of council housing, cut-off from the commuter trains and upwardly-mobile cafe bars.

Richmond's primary schools are also known for getting the best test results in the country - but the school opened in 1952 to serve this council estate in Ham faces the type of challenges more usually associated with more deprived boroughs.

Meadlands has pupils who between them speak 22 different languages and the number of pupils qualifying for free school meals - a standard marker of deprivation - is higher than the national average, as well as the local average.

But the head teacher, Rob Meakin, is an energetically upbeat advocate of making sure that the best use is made of whatever potential the pupils might have - and of selling a message of success.

Marketing

Head teachers have to "market" their schools, he says, appealing to as wide a range of parents as possible, sending invitations to them to come to see the school and encouraging a healthy social mix of pupils.

Meadlands has an interactive whiteboard in every class

And when parents visit the school, he can show them a remarkably creative use of space, with barely a corner left unused for some IT project or an area for reading.

Anyone who hasn't been inside a primary school for many years might be taken aback by the dozens of computers, the level of curriculum planning and the extra initiatives running alongside lessons.

In Meadlands, all the classrooms have their own interactive whiteboard. There is a breakfast club where children can be fed before lessons and there are water bottles on the table so that pupils do not dehydrate during the day.

Richmond supports competitive sports, and Meadlands has successful football and netball teams - and there are 15 different activity clubs, covering topics from gardening to drawing.

The school is also part of the Classrooms of the Future project, which seeks to apply leading-edge design, architecture and technology to schools.

'Self-worth'

Mr Meakin says that like other heads, he has to be "pro-active" in chasing whatever other grants and pots of money are available - whether it's from local charities or lottery funds.

Pupils drink water during the day to keep them alert for learning

He says that the whole ethos of the school is about making pupils feel included and giving them a chance to promote their sense of "self-worth".

But does that mean that his school is any more or any less successful than the higher achieving schools on the more upmarket side of the river?

That's where it gets difficult. Because if you were a parent and looked only at the 2002 headline test results you would say it was in the bottom half of the borough's league table.

Of course, that wouldn't show the huge amount of work on growing different types of habitats in the school grounds or the musical instruments and art work all around the place, or the sense of well-ordered classrooms.

The crux is that learning is important. Children only have one life chance Head teacher Rob Meakin

And perhaps unsurprisingly, when extremes of success or failure are measured by league tables, Mr Meakin isn't that keen. Because league tables tend to show where pupils have reached, rather than measuring how much they have risen.

When pupils begin at the school, levels of attainment are below average. And the school could say that it was an achievement in itself to raise these children up into the average bracket.

But average doesn't sound great in a league table - and when it comes to the test results being published each year, the school is in a race that it can't win.

Mr Meakin isn't against testing or assessment, but the tables rankle, even though the addition of a "value-added" measure will add a clearer picture of what schools contribute.

And he says the school has its own priorities, which are about motivating pupils, valuing the diversity of their backgrounds and pioneering ways of learning.

"The crux is that learning is important. Children only have one life chance," he says.