Boy who broke GCSE record at five is off to Cambridge

A boy of 15 who has never been to school today became the youngest student for more than 200 years to win a place at Cambridge University.

Arran Fernandez, who has been home-educated in Surrey, will start his maths degree at Fitzwilliam College next month. It will make him the youngest Cambridge student since 14-year-old William Pitt the Younger studied there in 1773.

But the teenager will not be living in halls with other students. He will move into a rented house with his father Neil, who has been his sole teacher.

Arran plans to join the bird-watching society and go punting on the Cam while at the university.

Today he said: "I am looking forward to going to the lectures. I have already started the
first-year books and it is all right, not too difficult."

Arran was five when he became the youngest person to be awarded a GCSE after passing maths.

Speaking about his latest educational record he said: "I am excited about going to Cambridge but I am used to making records about being the youngest in education."

Arran, who is an only child, was offered the place at Cambridge in January, when he was 14, but it was conditional on him gaining an A-level in physics, which he did with the highest grade.

He has also written a book on Shakespeare's plays and is in negotiations with publishers. He said: "I've loved his plays as long as I can remember. First appreciate the plot patterns, then everything else follows.

"I have studied all 39 plays and the book looks at the pattern of the plots. I don't have a title yet. English literature is very interesting but it is not my thing like maths is."

His father Neil said today: "Any child could do this. The idea that babies are born with different amounts of intellectual potential is false. It is fundamentally oligarchic. Home-educated children just find it easier to avoid the dumbing-down process."

He added: "Arran will be having a look at the societies available at Cambridge. I wouldn't expect him to get involved in rugby or rowing, but he is very keen to join the bird-watching society."

Mr Fernandez said Arran was never forced to study particular subjects at a certain time, unlike in schools. He said he has discussed his son's well-being with the college and added that Arran is used to mixing with people of all ages.

Arran's GCSE pass beat the record previously held by maths prodigy Ruth Lawrence, who gained hers at the age of nine.

She went to Oxford University at the age of 12 and now — at 39 — is a maths professor at a university in Jerusalem.