A school in Hemel Hempstead could face closure if its GCSE grades do not improve.
Yesterday, schools Secretary Ed Balls launched The National Challenge to raise results in England's lowest-performing 638 schools- including Astley Cooper on St Agnells Lane.
The drive will see £400 million pumped into the schools over the next th
ree years.
The challenge expects 30 per cent of pupils in all secondary schools to gain five good GCSEs including English and maths.
Last year, Astley Cooper fell just below the benchmark with 29 per cent.
However headteacher, Anne Smithers, said the school was on target to score 39 per cent in this summer's exams.
She said: "We were just below the 30 per cent mark last year so I'm very confident that next year we won't be in this category.
"The only real explantion for scoring 29 per cent is that every year group is different in this school.
"We take on a lot of students who have not been successful in other schools so we have a changing population and just one student not scoring a C in Maths may have made the difference to our overall pass rate.
"We have some very strong departments in the school and a lot to offer."
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