A gifted young man has secured straight As in his A Level results, even though he isn't able to read or write.
Oliver Chadwick, 18, has the reading age of a six-year-old and is profoundly dyslexic. But this August, he received grades of A*AA in the most difficult examinations offered by secondary level education.
As he prepares to embark on an engineering mathematics degree at the University of Bristol, Oliver and his mum Sophie, 54, have reflected on the hard work, determination and ingenuity that has carried him this far.
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SomersetLive reports 18-year-old Oliver is mainly affected by reading signs. He said: "My dyslexia affects me quite a lot, but also surprisingly little if you think about it.
"When people hear that you can’t read or write, they think you can’t do anything, but it only really affects me day-to-day when I can’t read things like signs."
Mum Sophie remembers the first time she realised Oliver was having difficulties at school. She said: "When he started school, it was a running joke at the dinner table every night that we would ask Oliver what he'd had for lunch that day because he would always say 'jacket potato and beans'.
"We thought it was just because he really liked it, but it was actually because he couldn't read the menu and that was something he knew they had every day. Even now, he cannot read menus, but he has become much better at guessing what signs might be about."
When Oliver began to fall behind with his literacy in junior school, Sophie was told he would "pick it up eventually". She added: "I knew something wasn't normal, but they spent a lot of time telling me that boys were often a little bit slower to learn than girls.
"Whereas it might take other children an hour to do their homework, it could take Oliver 20 times as long. He went to lessons with the Dyslexia Association for two hours a week on Saturdays, to practice his reading and writing, and I had to work part-time so I could help him with his learning at home.
"After a while, they said there was no advantage to him continuing with the lessons because he was not progressing. They are probably great for other children but they weren't working for Oliver. Since then, I have spoken to two experts, who have been doing their jobs a long time, and they said that he was the most profoundly dyslexic person they had ever seen.
"So, by the time he went to secondary school, I decided we would stop trying to teach him. He had spent two hours a week for six years trying to do something he couldn't do and I just said 'right, we are not going to waste any more time on this'."
Yet, Oliver has never let his learning disability bother him, choosing instead to focus on his strengths. He said: "It wasn’t until year six that I started to notice a difference between myself and my classmates, but I never felt stupid, I just knew that reading was something I couldn't do and there was no point getting upset about it.
"The hardest thing about school was when people were making plans on social media and I had no idea they were happening. For example, I didn't even have anyone's number until year 11."
When he started at Ralph Allen School, Oliver got through most of his lessons by listening to what the teacher said. He had a teaching assistant for some of his classes. Once he got to GCSE level, not everyone was sure he would make it through the exams.
Sophie said: "There was talk of him going to a special school, but he wanted to do them at Ralph Allen - and he did really, really well"
Strangely, although he is dyslexic, the 18-year-old does not suffer from dyscalculia - difficulty in understanding numbers - even though they both relate to how the brain interprets symbols. He studied maths, further maths and chemistry at A Level.
Though facing what could be seen as a huge disadvantage, Oliver stayed cool and collected in the run-up to his exams. Sophie said this was because he "could not cram" so leaving things to the last minute was not an option.
Oliver added: "There is no point in stressing. I always feel quite chilled because there could always be something you've forgotten, but you have to accept that and move on.
"My mum actually wanted to send me to a dyslexia specialist school in Gloucester, but I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay at Ralph Allen and I knew I could do my A Levels there."
Now, Oliver is preparing to start the next chapter of his life at the University of Bristol. There, he will get some study skills support, as well as a postgraduate mentor to help him find the right books and a peer mentor who is in his class.
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