Maths textbooks should be banned because they intimidate pupils, a leading girls’ school headmistress has said.

Jane Prescott, head of Portsmouth High School said that students risk becoming anxious if they can see that their classmates are “galloping ahead” of them.

The move has been a “confidence booster” for girls, and allows them to “feel encouraged, and feel they are good at Maths”, Ms Prescott said.

“Maths is about confidence. If you are someone who is nervous about Maths, [textbooks] put you off,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

If textbooks are taken away, students “are not in a situation where they feel everyone else is galloping ahead”, she added.

The ban has been in place during Maths lessons at the £14,00-a-year girls’ school for the past three years, and applies to all age groups except for those in the sixth form.

“If everyone is going through a text book, it can be intimidating, you can feel restricted and feel held back," Ms Prescott said.