A SHINING star has achieved an A grade in GCSE maths, five years earlier than expected.

Eleven-year-old Mohammed Younas sat his GCSE maths exam when he was ten and joined hundreds of thousands of pupils yesterday to open their results.

Proud mum, Naz Younas, 37, from Bishopsteignton, Shoebury, said: “We are very proud of him. Ever since he was four or five years old he always knew numbers, he had a talent for them.

“We put him in to (teacher) Sean Sennu who told us he thought Mohammed had the ability to pass it.

“We thought it was a little early but we trusted him.

“After just two months of tutoring, he sat the exam and he did so well, he was three marks off an A*.

“He is really happy, for him it is just an exam. I think it was only when he got the result that he realised exactly what he has achieved. We are very proud of him.

“He is good at maths and it was a big focus in junior school- they mainly teach them English and maths.

He has always loved maths and he is quite competitive. He says he is going to be the next Rachel Riley- the mathematician who presents TV show Countdown- and has even met her twice.

Mr Sennu, who provides a year long GCSE maths preparation course, said he knew Mohammed would succeed.

The 52-year-old said: “I absolutely knew he was ready to do his GCSE, he is very talented.

“It was amazing, when he first came to me, he did a mock exam and already achieved 50 percent on the first try- in just a short time he was getting 100 percent in practice exams.

“I am proud to have taught him, he did extremely well. He did a lot of work in that short time.

“All my students did well, I have an 11-year-old that got a B and Year 10’s that achieved As and Bs.”

Mohammed will be heading to Southend High School for Boys in September.