Schools to be given early warning if standards slip

Hundreds of "coasting" schools, which are in danger of failing their inspections, are to face a crackdown by the Government.

Local authorities are being told they should deliver warning notices telling schools they will fail their full inspections and face closure if they do not pull their socks up.

The local authorities have also been told they have the power to sack the governing body and replace it with their own interim board of specialists to take over the running of the school.

New powers granted to councils mean they could force the school to link up with a business partner or a successful neighbouring school to improve standards. The schools will be told that if they fail to take heed of the warnings they could be shut and replaced by a privately-sponsored academy.

The new powers are spelt out in a letter sent to every town hall in England yesterday by the Schools minister Jim Knight. Councils are being told they should look for schools which display weaknesses in particular subject areas but at present fall short of failing their full inspection by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog.

"It is no good waiting for the patient to end up on the critical list when you can prescribe preventative medicine early on," Mr Knight's fellow Schools minister, Andrew Adonis, told The Independent.

"The best cure is prevention and local authorities have a responsibility to act quickly."

The new drive will include some schools in the leafier suburbs that do reasonably well in exam league tables but could do better. Grammar schools that fail to get the best out of their pupils could also come under the microscope.

The schools could take a leaf out of the book of High View school in Derby, which had the third worst exam results in the country with only seven per cent of pupils achieving five A* to C grade passes.

It linked up with the high performing Lees Brook school and reopened as Da Vinci College. Now the GCSE pass rate has tripled with 22 per cent of pupils getting five A* to C grade passes at GCSE.

Teachers' leaders will regard the move as yet another crackdown on schools, They have already criticised Ofsted for saying that a school declared "satisfactory" as a result of its inspection is not performing well enough.

However, ministers argue that, by acting before a crisis emerges, they will prevent many schools from being declared failing.