Michael Marland, who died on 3 July, 2008, was a comprehensive school headteacher who was one of the most impassioned and reputable advocates for accessible and relevant teaching.

In 1980 he began a two-decade stint as head of the new North Westminster Community School where he demonstrated that an approach to education that centred on the pupils and staff, rather than curriculums and league tables, could reap great benefits.

His dynamic initiatives included reworking science and technology lessons to focus on everyday life and practical applications, rather than bland theory, introducing liaison officers to communicate with the parents of troubled pupils and spicing up terms by inviting well-known figures to address the school.

Mr Marland was born in London on 28 December, 1934. He was educated at Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, Sussex, and then studied English and history at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

He went on to teach English at various schools in London before being appointed head at North Westminster. By this time he was already an eminent figure in education circles, having written columns for The Guardian and the Times Educational Supplement and campaigned for higher standards in teaching of basic English skills such as grammar and punctuation. He had been awarded a CBE in 1977.

He was a man of ceaseless energy and was known to walk between North Westminster's three sites, rattling off new ideas into a Dictaphone as he went. He was also considered a gregarious host and vivacious debater, qualities which helped him persuade top writers, such as Keith Waterhouse and Fay Weldon, to talk to pupils and inspire new interest in literature, while the renowned opera singers, Jessye Norman and Willard White, both performed for the school.

He wrote numerous books on the subject of pedagogy that were both politically persuasive and practically invaluable to teachers, emphasising the multiplicity of their role - they should be "the salesman, the music-hall performer, the parent, the clown, the intellectual, the lover and the organiser" he wrote in The Craft of the Classroom (1975).

After retirement in 1999 he continued to gives talks on various educational subjects and was elected vice-chair of the City of Westminster Race Equality Council. Other extra-curricular activities during his life included editing anthologies of contemporary and classic works and staging conferences.

He was married three times and had five children - his third wife Linda and four of his children survived him. He died of cancer at the age of 73.