WYCOMBE High School has been named an elite mathematics hub as part of an £11m government initiative to improve standards.

Education Minister Elizabeth Truss has named 32 schools as maths hubs tasked with matching the standards set in China and Japan.

The hubs will act as a ‘pace maker’ and implement the Asian-style mastery approach to maths. Chinese children are said to be two years ahead of their English counterparts by the time they reach 15.

Wycombe High headteacher Sharon Cromie said she was delighted her school’s excellence in maths had been recognised with hub status.

She said: “We will be the lead school for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, west Berkshire and Maidenhead.

"The idea is that, as the hub leader, we will work with alliances and interested schools to introduce best practices.

“Best practices are already in place for our children, and I’m sure they are at other good school, but our role will be to help other schools adopt those best practices as part of a collaborative approach.”

Techniques used in the mastery approach to maths include pupils receiving daily lessons and being set nightly homework and practice.

With shared lesson plans, textbooks and training for teachers who are urged to participate in maths research to ensure they are up-to-date.

Teachers from the Disraeli Primary School and Wycombe High will travel out to Asia to work in Chinese schools during the next academic year.

Chinese teachers will make the trip in the opposite direction to pass on their expertise and carry out their own study of the English schools system.

Mrs Cromie said: “It’s trying to see what they do and take the best of that.

“But they also recognise that we do a lot of great things in our schools and that we have a broad curriculum, where we have students studying subjects such as drama alongside maths.”

Mrs Cromie will join the headteachers from the other 31 maths hub schools at a reception at Number 11 Downing Street today.

Wycombe High is also celebrating receiving the Exceptional School Award and being designated as a Teaching School.

Mrs Cromie added: “The maths hub and the Exceptional Schools Award demonstrate the commitment we have to a first class education and the recruitment of the very best teachers’.