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Nigerian-born nine-year-old twins yesterday became the youngest pupils to be admitted to a secondary school in Britain, timesonline.co.uk has reported.Paula and Peter Imafidon had already broken world records when they passed A/AS-level mathematics papers at the age of 7. Yesterday, the twins joined hundreds of thousands of other families across the country to find out which secondary school they would attend, despite being two years younger than most of their counterparts.
Peter and Paula, from Waltham Forest, northeast London, attend a normal State primary school but have received provisional offers from more than 12 leading secondary schools.
The so-called “wonder twins”, who come from a family of high achievers, set two world records when they passed A/AS-level maths papers. They became the youngest candidates to pass A-level maths and were also the youngest school pupils to do so, as the previous record holders had been taught at home, the website reported.
A year later they took and passed the University of Cambridge’s Advanced Mathematics (FAM) paper, becoming the youngest students to pass the rigorous examinations.
Chris Imafidon, their father, said that the twins would cope well with secondary school despite their age. “We’re delighted with the progress they have made,” he said. “Because they are twins they are always able to help and support each other.”
Peter and Paula’s sister Samantha, 12, passed her maths and statistics GSCEs at the age of 6, as did the twins. Their eldest sister, Anne-Marie, 20, holds the world record for being the youngest girl to pass A-level computing, at 13. She received a government scholarship to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Another sister, Christiana, 17, was the youngest schoolgirl to study at undergraduate level in any British university, at the age of 11.
Mr Imafidon said that all of the children had taken part in the Excellence in Education programme, which helps disadvantaged families, and their achievements were due to being nurtured rather than natural "genius".
“Every child is a genius. Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent then the sky is the limit," he said.
Peter has ambitions to become Prime Minister of UK while his sister wants to be a maths teacher. Mr Imafidon said he was confident that they would achieve their goals.
