It adds up to gold for John

Held each June, the Junior Mathematical Olympiad is taken by the top 1000 pupils who sit the Junior Mathematics Challenge in the UK. This year John and Ryan Scorer, also now in Year 10, were invited to take part.

John was amongst the best 25% of pupils taking the Olympiad paper, receiving a Certificate of Distinction and a Gold medal. Moreover, he was also was awarded a book ‘The Number Mysteries’ by Marcus du Sautoy, which was sent to only 50 of the candidates.

This was not the only achievement for John this summer as in June he sat his GCSE in Mathematics, three years early. John was awarded a Grade A*, gaining full marks in both papers. Mrs Rosemary Parker, Head of the Mathematics Department at Friends’, who helped John prepare for his GCSE, said she was delighted by John’s success for he showed exceptional Mathematical ability and a real appetite for study.

Earlier this year John, along with Brooke Watson, Jason Steenson and Andrew Murphy, took part in the UK Junior Team challenge finals in London in June. The Friends’ team had already won the Northern Ireland final and were placed fifteenth in the London final.