GCSE exam board Edexcel has selected the maths department of Penrith’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) as one of their seven national case studies.

The study looks at the work of the department which led to the school’s impressive results in the first year of the new 9-1 grade GCSE curriculum. All 126 year 11 students who took the new maths exam last summer gained a standard pass of grade 4 or above - equivalent to an old C grade.

A total of 97 per cent gained a strong pass of 5 or above and more than 60 per cent of the cohort achieved one of the top 7-9 grades that are the equivalent of an A or above.

Some 37 per cent of students gained a grade 8 or 9.

Nadine Ford, head of maths at QEGS, said: "The challenges posed by the new curriculum were significant. There is more information to teach in the same amount of time, a different style of question that students were not used to answering and the new grading system - which staff had little confidence in."

The new curriculum was introduced in 2015 with the first exams taken in 2017.

The Department for Education claims the new curriculum will make the qualification more rigorous, better preparing students for work.