Wetz believes 'that despite the best efforts of schools and teachers too many young people are leaving our secondary schools without basic GCSE grades. At a time when the Government, through its Building Schools for the Future programme, is spending unprecedented sums on rebuilding our secondary schools, the programme asks whether we should consider whether building smaller secondary schools in our inner cities as Urban Village Schools, or designing schools within schools, would work better for all young people so that they are well known.

'The programme looks at the advantages offered by small primary schools,' he continues, 'and talks to young people who have left school with few qualifications. It hears the views of headteachers here in Bristol who are working in new ways, and visits small schools in New York and Boston where success rates seem to be improving in smaller settings. It argues that, while small schools are essential, they are not sufficient, and that it is what we are able to do within small schools that makes the difference.'

Dispatches: The Children Left Behind, Channel Four, 8pm tonight (Monday)