Staff and pupils are celebrating the a Barnet school's best ever results, with a record 69.8 per cent of all exams awarded either A* or eight/nine in the new system.

Queen Elizabeth's School in Queen's Road, Barnet, saw 70 per cent of students achieving a nine in the new Maths GCSE, which is higher than an A* in equivalent grades, with all 181 in the year group achieving between nine and seven in the subject.

Headteacher Neil Enright acknowledged the additional work the new grading system has caused teachers in planning lessons and creating ways for them to be tested under the new system.

He said: "The figures represent a great deal of sustained hard work on the part of the pupils, supported, of course, by their teachers.

Times Series: (Photo: Eleanor Bentall)(Photo: Eleanor Bentall)

“Over the past few months, some in the education world have been warning that the supposed complexity of the changes to the subject specifications and to the grading system for English and Mathematics have been placing increased burdens on staff and pupils alike."

Mr Enright also welcomed the stretching of the grading for GCSEs to make the examinations "more relevant" to high achieving students.

All Year 11 pupils passed all of their GCSEs – that is, there were no grades below C or four, and almost half scored either A* or A (or the numerical equivalents) in all of their subjects, while 98.3 per cent of them had five or more A*-A grades in subjects including English and Mathematics.