First school fails 'quality' test

Stratford School - the east London comprehensive that achieved notoriety during a battle between its headteacher Anne Snelling and a group of governors - has become the first opted-out school to fail one of the Government's new independent inspections.

The inspectors reported low academic standards, with only 4 per cent of pupils achieving five GCSE passes at grade C or above, unsatisfactory teaching and learning, no daily act of collective worship as required by law, and breaches of health and safety rules. John Patten, Secretary of State for Education, said he would close the school if it did not prepare a satisfactory plan for remedial action.