The headteacher of a prestigious Wolverhampton school – which takes on pupils a year early – has revealed the revolutionary teaching methods inspiring a “love of learning” in youngsters.

Dr Bernard Trafford, from Wolverhampton Grammar School, has led a rebellion against the “league table culture” by providing a pre-school year with no external testing.

The Big Six ‘Learning to Learn’ programme avoids drilling pupils to pass national tests and aims to inject fun back into the classroom while inspiring pupils with a thirst to learn.

It’s been running at the Compton Road school for three years and is open to pupils who have completed year five of primary school. Such has been its success its intake has doubled to around 40 pupils.

As head of the private secondary school, Dr Trafford admits he has the luxury of not being constrained by the Government’s national curriculum which he believes “stifles” children’s love of learning. “We started with a blank sheet of paper to design the Big Six curriculum, called Learning to Learn, to suit our students,” said Dr Trafford, who becomes chairman of the elite HMC group of independent schools in September next year.

“Pupils don’t sit national curriculum exams such as SATS,” he said. “We believe this stifles their learning as this age. In some ways it’s quite similar to the way children were taught before league tables took precedent.”