There are other things that can be done within the existing framework that are more promising

Professor Harry Brighouse

There have also been concerns that many pupils have not chosen to go there, but have failed to find places elsewhere.

Director of education for Surrey County Council, Dr Paul Gray, said: "It was clear that these were exceptional circumstances and needed an exceptional solution."

Nord Anglia, which won a seven-year contract, will be expected to change the school's image - including giving it a new name - so that it can compete with other more popular schools in the area.

'Clean break'

The company wants to make Abbeylands the first school specialising in business and enterprise and believes the private sector can make a difference.

Nord Anglia's Kevin McNeany said it was an opportunity for a clean break with the past.

Dr Paul Gray: "Exceptional solution"

"The school has an opportunity to go forward," he said.

"That wouldn't have been possible without the intervention of a private sector partner."

Surrey County Council has already pioneered the use of the private sector in turning around individual schools, with the privately-run King's College having been created as an alternative to closing a failing school.

US example

The number of state schools with private sector backing in expected to increase in the UK, as both Labour and the Conservatives are looking for inspiration from examples in the United States.

In the US, private firms offer financial backing for the local authority schools, which remain free to pupils.

But the BBC's education correspondent Mike Baker says widespread transformation of the state sector is expected to meet resistance from teachers' unions who fear a two-tier education system.

Professor Harry Brighouse, of the Institute of Education, also believes private backing is an unwise move.

"There are other things that can be done within the existing framework that are more promising, that will be less costly and less of a shot in the dark," he said.