Not everyone is Sir Alex Ferguson: systemic constraints, not just individual leadership, are responsible for persistent differences in school standards

Research demonstrates that running a successful school is not just down to having an inspirational headteacher and staff. Ruth Lupton writes that the additional struggles faced by disadvantaged schools in retaining excellent teachers and dealing with a wide range of learning needs, social problems and a challenging emotional environment constitute real challenges to organisational capacity and improvement. These must be acknowledged if Government is to achieve its goal of closing the performance gap between schools in richer and poorer areas.