A young genius who could give Einstein a run for his money is celebrating after getting an A in his A-level Maths.
Ten-year-old Thomas Frith, who is a pupil at West End Primary School, has been studying for the exam for the past two years.
Thomas said he is overjoyed at getting the result, but also wondered if he could have done more because he was only one to two marks off an A*.
He said: “I feel satisfied now – I have done it and nothing can take that away from me. But I also feel, could I have done better because I came so close to it? I always want to do even better than what is expected of me.”
To enable Thomas to study for his A-level his parents took him out of his school to Horsforth High School whenever the A-level Maths classes were scheduled.
She said: “He is so determined. He knows it’s possible to get 100 per cent so that’s what he wants to get. But, he is still a normal ten-year-old: he loves playing in the garden, playing on the computer and football.
“It’s been a good week for Thomas because he’s also just had the cast off his leg, after fracturing his ankle playing football.
“He is very down-to-earth – we watched a TV programme about extremely bright children and he was really shocked at just how pushy some of the parents were. He is very self motivated and just gets on with things.”
She added: “He is relieved it’s over at long last – two years is a long time to study for one thing for a ten-year-old! He gets bored quickly so we always need to find new things to stimulate him.”
When he first started primary school in Reception Thomas joined the Year 5 class for maths and he was soon studying maths with the oldest class, Year 6.
But after two years in Year 6 Thomas found himself going over the same material he had already studied so his mum enrolled him on an adult education evening class for GCSE Maths, which he passed in less than a year.
Deborah said: “I want to thank Thomas’s maths teacher at Horsforth School, Melanie Lee, who has been amazing. She understands him. The sixth formers have been great too.”
Thomas also passed his Music Theory Grade 5 exam this month. He plays the cello, bassoon and piano. He has been a keen reader since he was two and his favourite game is Scrabble.
The next step for Thomas, who still has one year left at primary school, is to do Further Maths and Mechanics A-levels.
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