Questions must be asked over Richmond Council's sixth forms policy after almost 40 per cent of pupils failed maths and biology at Teddington School, a councillor has said.

Councillor Stephen Knight hit out at the Conservative administrations investment in opening sixth forms across the borough, after the "disappointing" results were announced.

While Teddington School exceeded its targets overall, 62 per cent of maths and biology students achieved A*-E grades in the school's first ever AS exams.

Councillor Stephen Knight, a Greater London Assembly member and councillor for Teddington, said the results raise "serious questions" for the council.

He said: "Obviously these kind of results are disappointing, both for the school but more importantly for the individual students themselves.

"We know our young people were doing well in local colleges and it is essential to match that, particularly in subjects like maths, which is extremely worrying I think."

Sixth forms and colleges do not have to release AS levels but Teddington School headmaster John Wilkinson said the school wanted to be transparent.

He said there were reasons for the disappointing maths and biology results but believes it is "reasonably easy to fix".

He said: "It is a shame but this sort of thing is not uncommon - I am really pleased with the results overall, we are in the top 30 per cent of schools nationally.

"In biology, the choice of coursework options didn't work but that is reasonably easy to fix - those students will retake the exam in November and they will be fine.

"Maths had a relatively low entry rate and pupils who were grade C at GCSE were accepted, with the A2 target of D and AS target of E.

"Other sixth forms only take A or B grade students and although it doesn't look great in the results, some slip off the bottom."

He added that he wants more schools to be brave and accept students with lower GCSE grades but admitted it is a "difficult balance".

Councillor Paul Hodgins, cabinet member for education, said: "I am proud of Teddington's first year of sixth form.

"Each subject in each year can have its own specific conditions.

"I get worried if there is lower than expected performance across a number of subjects or persistently across years.

"I am never complacent about any of our schools, but I have high confidence in Teddington."