67 London schools told to improve or be taken over

Dozens of London schools - including many city academies - are being ordered to raise their standards or face losing their independence.

Ministers are unveiling plans aimed at slashing the number of schools where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils achieve at least five C-grades at GCSE, including English and maths.

Education watchdog Ofsted has warned that the drive to improve results has "stalled".

Some 67 of these 638 "National Challenge" schools - including 12 academies - are in London, but today the Government's chief school improvement adviser told the Evening Standard it would probably be impossible to reduce the total to zero, given the difficulties some had to face.