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The team of 50 professionals at law firm Pinsent Masons have been working alongside pupils at Cockburn College of Arts studying for maths and English GCSE exams.

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The sessions lasted 45 minutes and involved a "coach" working with a maximum of three pupils.

Cockburn's assistant head Rob Dixon said: "Analysis of our results over the past three years shows that additional assistance given to pupils at this crucial stage by the Pinsent Masons team has had a major and positive impact on out GCSE performance."

Last year, every pupil of the school who sat GCSE maths gained a pass for the first time in Cockburn's history.

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Between 2006 and 2008, the number of pupils achieving five A* to C grades in all subjects, including maths and English, rose from 17 to 31 per cent.

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The coaching project has been organised by Leeds Ahead, which helps companies across the city become involved in the social and economic regeneration.

Among those to benefit from the coaching sessions has been 14-year-old Blerina Berisha, a year 10 pupil who will take her GCSEs next year.

She said: "I want to study medicine when I leave school and to do this I need to get my GCSE in maths. The help I have received has been great."

Keen sportsman Daniel Wheatley, 13, plans to be a PE teacher and believes that the extra coaching he has received in maths and English will eventually help him to fulfil his ambitions. "I was struggling, but now I feel a lot more confident," he said.