The head teacher of Broadlands says he is determined to build local parents' confidence in his school.
Dean Anderson started at the Keynsham school in January and has already had success in improving the academy's GCSE results, with pupils achieving the school's best ever grades.
He said they needed to move on from a troubled few years, when Bath and North East Somerset Council was considering closing it, and look to a brighter future.
"The issue we have got in terms of numbers relates back to the time of the impending closure by B&NES," he said.
"We have lost that confidence with parents, they were concerned that the school might not be there in the future.
"The situation significantly changed when the governors decided to go down the academy route."
This summer 60 per cent of pupils achieved five or more A* to C GCSE grades, including English and maths, which was a 16 per cent rise on the previous year.
It was also a ten percent rise on the school's previous best-ever results.
Mr Anderson said he had no doubt that Keynsham still needed two secondary schools and was determined to build admission figures up again, with the long-term aim of seeing Broadlands graded as outstanding by Ofsted.
He said: "I have done a lot of work, meeting with our primary school heads within the local area, to try to reassure people that Broadlands is now an academy and a very different place than it used to be.
"I am trying to raise the profile and raise the aspirations for our students."
He added: "I have been in conversation with Andrea Arlidge, the head at Wellsway, and we agree that Keynsham does need two secondary schools.
"We are working together to make sure the local community is best served by these two schools."
