Al-Faisal College has high expectations of its students. Distractions are kept to a minimum - no mobile phones are allowed, nor laptops before year 11 - and every minute of classroom time must be devoted to teaching and learning.

Al-Faisal College's stars of HSC maths: Aisha Duncan , Sadan Taher, Joanne Zreika, Head Maths teacher Mohamad Jamal, Muneeb Zafar, Haiwad Rashtia, Tabeeb Bin Mashiur, Safa Rashid, Ibrahim Shukri and dux Dania Al Rifai. Credit:Louise Kennerley

"An hour means an hour, it doesn't mean 35 or 45 minutes," said deputy principal Peter Rompies. "We are pedantic about small things like that. [The school executive] will sit in the classroom if we have to, to make sure the students are focused."

The approach has paid off, particularly in maths. This year, the non-selective Islamic college had a fractionally higher success rate in the three hardest mathematics courses than the state’s top school, James Ruse Agricultural High – although Al-Faisal’s cohort was smaller.

The success rate calculates high scores (band six or E4) as a percentage of entries. Al-Faisal had 52 high scores from 57 entries in three top maths courses, compared with 272 high scores from 300 entries from James Ruse.