The difficulties faced by businesses created out of multi-million pound mergers are being replicated on a humbler scale by the growing number of schools that are joining together, res-earch has found.

Mergers between schools are almost as unsuccessful as tie-ups in the corporate world with 55 per cent leading to lower educational standards. By comparison, 50-70 per cent of company mergers fail to achieve their objectives and, on average, lead to a 10 per cent fall in share prices for a year following a deal.