But Xavier still earns A in maths... and he’s back in class

Islington Gazette: Xavier Stuart-Samaroo, ten, achieves an A in his GCSEs on maths.Xavier Stuart-Samaroo, ten, achieves an A in his GCSEs on maths. (Image: Archant)

While thousands of 16-year-olds across the country were relieved to get a C grade in their GCSE maths exam last week, a 10-year-old Holloway boy was disappointed to miss out on an A*.

Xavier Stuart-Samaroo, who is just about to enter Year 6 at St Peter and St Paul Roman Catholic School in Compton Street, Finsbury studied the GCSE curriculum for just one year with help from his father, YouTube videos and text books.

Challenge

He found out last Wednesday that he’d got an A, and is already back in the library working towards his AS-level qualification, which he plans to take next year. “I thought I would do better,” said Xavier, “I wanted to get an A*, that’s what I’m aiming for in my AS-level now.

“It started when I was really young – my dad used to give me lots of work sheets and they just kept getting harder and harder.

“I did about four hours work after school every day and I had to bring my own work in because school doesn’t challenge me. The other children think I’m a show-off.”

It’s not just his classmates that are perplexed by his passion for maths, invigilators and other candidates couldn’t believe it when they were told 4ft 4in Xavier was taking the same exam as them.

“The invigilators thought it was me who was taking the exam when we first walked in,” said Xavier’s father Anthony Samaroo. “I have to go with him because he’s not old enough to be left on his own.”

The primary school pupil was even helping his older rivals out before the test.

“I had to teach them in the waiting room at the exam centre,” said Xavier.

“The first one was really easy, I finished it with about an hour and a quarter left.

“My dad was teasing me saying that I was going to have to re-take because I had gotten a B, but he was joking.”

Xavier, an Arsenal fan who plays football and has recently joined an athletics club, spends the rest of his spare time reading the likes of Harry Potter and the Young Bond and Young Sherlock Holmes series. He is now hoping to work towards taking his English and science GCSE exams early.

n For full coverage of the borough’s GCSE results turn to pages 11 to 15.