A new principal has been appointed to beleaguered East Brighton College of Media Arts.

Dr Jill Clough will take over at the school, which was put on special measures this month, next Easter.

She said her first task would be to reassure students and parents that she was there to stay.

She said: "I have never run away from anything difficult in my life.

"I believe in keeping an open door for parents and I'm really excited to be getting into the heart of what education is about.

"I passionately believe no child is a useless child. They have all got a talent and it is my job to find it and I believe arts and creativity, properly tapped, can raise levels of achievement."

Dr Clough has spent much of her teaching career in private schools. She has worked for the last five years as the head of selective, fee-charging Wimbledon High School. Before that, she was head of the Royal Naval School in Surrey.

By comparison, East Brighton College of Media Arts is a mixed comprehensive serving an area of high unemployment and deprivation.

The college has been in the headlines in recent years for problems with pupil behaviour, high exclusion rates and low staff morale and has been given a place in the Government's New Start initiative for schools.

Dr Clough is an expert on school leadership and is confident she can tackle these issues.

She said: "I haven't lived with a silver spoon in my mouth my whole life and people are people.

"I won't be coming to Brighton thinking there is something radically different about the college or the students. Their needs are the same and the parents' feelings are the same, whatever environment they are in."

Dr Clough, who is divorced and has three grown-up daughters, has had a home in Brighton for several years.

She believes Brighton is the perfect place for the school to thrive as a media arts college.

She said: "I hope the college will achieve special arts college status and that it becomes a school where other people come to look at the way arts are used in mainstream teaching as an exciting focus for learning."

She said raising the students' expectations of their futures was one of the first issues she would tackle, along with the problems of behaviour and exclusions.

She said: "I don't want to prejudge the situation. I will spend time meeting the staff, parents and pupils and listening to what they have to say."

Educationalists hope her appointment will be a turning point for the school, which is being run by acting principal Clive Frost, director of the East Brighton Education Action Zone.

Derek Brown, chairman of governors at the college, said: "She has the vision, drive and dedication to take the college forward to success."

David Hawker, director of education and lifelong learning at Brighton and Hove Council, said: "The governors have made an extremely-good appointment. Dr Clough has an excellent record in school leadership, having been head of two highly-successful schools already."

Frieda Warman-Brown, executive councillor for education in Brighton and Hove, said: "She will play a crucial part in helping the college to consolidate the work being carried out by Clive Frost and continue the improvement measures now in place."