It is now a specialist arts college with 21 per cent of its pupils achieving the

It is now a specialist arts college with 21 per cent of its pupils achieving the required standard.¿ Lilian Bayliss School, Lambeth: Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, said recently he would “rather beg” than send his children to the school, even though it is the nearest comprehensive to his home. Last year only 6 per cent of its pupils got five top-grade GCSE passes, but this will increase to 17 per cent when the latest figures are published this month. Gary Philips, the school’s head, directly attributes last year’s poor performance to the naming and shaming. He claims that it discouraged parents from applying for places and lowered the ability of the 1997 intake, who sat their GCSEs in 2002.¿ Our Lady of Fatima School, Liverpool: a former grant maintained school that failed its Ofsted inspection and was given a fresh start when opt-out status was abolished. The school, which opted out of council control under the Tory government, was said to be making reasonable progress but was closed after Labour abolished opt-out schools.¿ Upbury Manor, Gillingham, Kent: singled out because only 7 per cent of pupils got five good GCSE passes. It became the first privatised school to close in 2000 after Hackney council decided it had still not shown sufficient improvement.¿ Morningside, Hackney: originally on the list because only one in 10 of its 11-year-olds reached the required standard in maths tests.

Ofsted now says it is an improving school, although standards are still low in relation to national averages.¿ Southfields, Gravesend, Kent: the school came bottom of the first national exam league tables with only a handful of pupils getting five top-grade GCSE passes. It was given a fresh start but ran into a row with the NUT when 12 teachers were threatened with dismissal for incompetence. It is now called Selhurst High School for Boys and has increasingly good GCSE results.¿ Rams Episcopal, Hackney : the first primary school on the list, singled out because 60 per cent of its 11-year-olds failed to reach the required standard in English tests. It was closed after spending two years on Ofsted’s list of failing schools, but given a fresh start and handed over to a private company, CfBT, to run.

This improved to 31 per cent last year.¿ Ingram High, Croydon: a boys’ school criticised when only one in four pupils achieved five top-grade GCSE passes. Ofsted says it has now improved, and last year 30 per cent of pupils obtained at least five top-grade GCSE passes for the first time.¿ Ashburton High, Croydon: condemned by ministers for only getting 18 per cent of pupils through their GCSEs with five A* to C grades in 1997. Although that deadline is now up, ministers have retreated from the plan to a degree, saying that underperforming schools will not necessarily be shut down.So did the original naming and shaming work? Six years on, four of the original 18 have closed and six have been given “fresh starts” – closed and reopened with a new name, new head and new staff. Of these six, four failed again and have been relaunched for a second time. Eight are as they were, with two still languishing near the foot of the exam results tables. All 14 that remain open have shown some improvement.Teachers’ unions continue to decry naming and shaming, arguing that many schools have been turned round by less drastic means. But the policy undoubtedly made teachers and education bosses strive to keep their schools off the list.These are the stories of the “Blunkett 18″:¿ Handsworth Wood, Birmingham: a secondary school where one in 12 pupils was playing truant on any given day.