Indian children are among the best at a school outside London that believes where education is concerned the younger, the better.

The school is not Eton or Harrow or some other big name associated with the cream of British education, but a more modest enterprise called Ryde Teaching Services that caters to the needs of some 70 or 80 students from the UK and other parts of the world.

Ten-year-old girl wonder Renuka Naraynan, who took the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) maths exam this summer (six years early), is glowing with pride at the A grade she has achieved. Last year, at the age of nine she managed a B grade in the GCSE information and technology (ICT) paper.

It’s easy to see Renuka as some kind of genius in the making, but she is far from unique. One of her class friends Ishan Baig, another Indian, was only seven years old when he achieved a B grade in ICT GCSE. The nine-year-old likes to play cricket, hockey and the piano, his current favourite reading is The Da Vinci Code and, oh yes, he hopes to sit for an Advanced Level (A Level) examination next year, eight years earlier than required.

Then there is Rishi, also aged 10, Tashan, aged nine, and three-year-old Mati, daughter of Minal Patel, who are already voracious readers. The list continues and includes other children from varying ethnic backgrounds, such as nine-year-old Xavier Gordon Brown, of Anglo-Caribbean parentage, who earlier this month managed to score an A star in A level maths.

“Probably 55-60 per cent of our children are of Asian origin, it’s probably more of a cultural thing,” school head Dr Mike Ryde told The Tribune. “I think there is a much higher value placed on education in the Asian community compared to perhaps the English, white, European community, where it almost seems as a necessary evil. It’s now starting to change with the value of education being seen in all walks. But education is considered to be very important by the Asian community. Culturally, the way I understand it, it’s in the religion as well."

His assessment is shared by Renuka's mother Viji, who recently revealed that her daughter memorised the names of world capitals by the age of two and started taking Sanskrit classes at the age of three. “In our culture, education is important,” Viji told the British media. She was fully supportive of the way her daughter prepared for the all-important maths paper -- with six hours of revision per day -- so that she was not caught unprepared on the day of the exam.

Ryde's reputation has spread so far that he gets at least one telephone call or email every week from India with anxious parents asking what he can do for their children. Parents are more than willing to pay the fees, which amounts to £25 (Rs 1800) per hour, and adds up to £3,000 or Rs 2.16 lakh tuition costs a year.

One Indian family from Mumbai was so keen to take advantage of what the school had to offer that they rented a flat in nearby Watford, where the pupil and his mother stayed for a year until he had taken and passed a couple of GCSEs.

Some parents might regard Ryde as something close to a miracle worker, but he insists that all he does is apply a mix of common sense and experience to help the children do their best at an earlier age than most of their contemporaries.

He explains, “If children are given the opportunity, they can progress. It’s not rocket science. If children are given the opportunity, and are taught at a younger age, they will achieve.

“I think people get hung up on methods and they are looking for some magical reasons why these children can take these examinations at a younger age, or get taught at a younger age. But people overlook the most basic concept, which is that children have the capacity. They don't have the intelligence -- because intelligence is something that is taught -- but they have the capacity to learn. That capacity diminishes as the child gets older. We all know it’s much easier to learn a musical instrument or a skill when you're younger. It gets much harder when you're older.

“The current educational system takes children through their academic career based upon their age, but what we believe is that children should be allowed to progress at their own pace. By allowing children to progress according to their ability, using that as a benchmark rather than age, you start to see wonderful things happening."

Ryde takes his cue from his father, who had a Ph.D in cybernetics and used to give home tutorials to children. “One of the children asked if he could take the examination and dad said he was too young. They pleaded, so he went to ask if he was allowed to. The boy sat the exam and then more and more people came.” Ryde College was born and Ryde senior continued to head it until he retired in 2005.

His son agrees that teaching methods have played a role in the college's success, but he insists those teaching methods are also based on a philosophy that believes in the success of young achievers. “Children love to learn, it’s what they do best. Whether it’s having a cigarette behind the bike shed, or whether it’s learning algebra in a maths lesson, if it’s presented in the right way, they will want to do it.”

In the longer term he believes all children should be given the option to take some of their secondary school exams at an earlier stage, so that they can be spaced out or staggered until the age of 16.

He says this would raise academic levels at schools and colleges and even pave the way for what he calls children’s universities. “It would be the same sort of thing as a normal university, but its social aspect would be geared around children. You couldn't possibly have 11, 12 and 13-year-olds mixing with students going to bars and going out to clubs.