Instead of pupils returning to lessons after half term, the arrivals at St George's School in north London on Monday morning were a private management team - brought in to stabilise a school closed by pupil violence.

On the same morning, a team from the Office for Standards in Education arrived to begin a three-week inspection of how the school's local authority - Westminster City Council - is running its schools.

And both school and local authority are likely to be looking with some uncertainty as to what the future might hold for them, given the serious problems facing St George's and the stripping of powers from a series of London education services after critical inspection reports.

Murdered head

After an outbreak of playground violence which left a pupil in hospital and police called to break up fighting, Westminster City Council announced last week that the half-term holiday at the school in Maida Vale would last a fortnight - so that order could be restored.

The school, where head teacher Philip Lawrence was murdered protecting a pupil in 1995, is to be closed until next Monday, as a management team spends a week with staff trying to develop a more disciplined regime.

The local authority is refusing to rule in or rule out any options for the school's future - with the possibility remaining of complete closure or a re-opening under a new name.

'Failing'

As well as contending with pupil violence and claims of ill-discipline, the school has been designated as academically "failing" by inspectors and the head teacher has taken early retirement.

However the local authority itself is being placed under the microscope, as Ofsted begins its rigorous investigation of standards in the education service.

It is expected that more details of the future of St George's school will be announced in three weeks, and Ofsted says that it will publish its report on Westminster City Council in June.