A class of GCSE pupils sat uneasily through a lesson delivered in the style of those from 150 years ago to mark the anniversary of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate - now the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examinations.

The syndicate was established to raise standards in education by inspecting schools and administering exams for people who were not members of the university and Birmingham was one of just eight UK centres sitting its first exams in 1858.

In 1858 an examiner would have delivered the papers in person and a set of recommendations were sent to local committees organising the exams. Instructions included taking care that there was “sufficient means for warming them and lighting them at night”.

Subjects included English language and literature, history, geography, geology, Greek, Latin, French, German, physical sciences, zoology, chemistry, arithmetic, mathematics, drawing, music and - provided parents didn’t object - religious knowledge.

Warwick School was one of the first schools to sit the exams.