Greater scrutiny of schools that are failing their pupils is expected to come the league tables that have now been published for some years. Once the news gets that the local Comprehensive School is near the bottom of the tables, rumours are put relating to poor teaching, failure to maintain discipline and bad management. Whether or not these rumours turn to be true, this is what comes comparing the nation's children without reference to the social problems which schools have to deal with. In extreme cases, a government inquiry comes and some staffing changes are often brought . An experienced official may stand the school's headteacher, who may have to undergo retraining to get taking early retirement.
The new manager may ask staff and parents to pull to stamp out truancy, to clamp down on bad behaviour and to see that homework is completed on time. Close monitoring behaviour and performance may go for some time until the new manager is convinced that pupils are getting the core components of the national curriculum. If all goes well, the next set of league tables will show improvements, which will have been brought the new policy of targeting schools which are underperforming.