Stunning A-level results for teen who can’t read or write

A teenager from Bath who cannot read or write has passed his A-level exams with flying colours.

Oliver Chadwick, 18, is so profoundly dyslexic that he has the reading age of a six-year-old. Yet the Oldfield Park lad 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, reflected on the hard work, determination and ingenuity that had carried him this far.

Oliver 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.”

Sophie, a mum-of-two, remembers the first time she realised that Oliver was not like other children. 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 that he would ‘pick it up eventually.’

“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,” she said.

“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 practise 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 disability bother him, choosing instead to focus on his strengths. He said: “It wasn’t until Year 6 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.

“Even now, my friends ring me when they’re already out and ask me if I’m coming and I say ‘I don’t know, this is the first I’ve heard of it,’” Oliver laughed.

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 classes, although he said he found it difficult when they changed. “Then I had to teach them from scratch what I needed them to write down,” he said.

Over five years on, Sophie believes Oliver’s experience of interacting with the assistants actually helped develop his interpersonal skills. “There’s a discursive element there that most young people don’t experience until university,” she said.

When Oliver reached GCSE level, not everyone was sure he would make it through the exams. “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,” Sophie said.

At GCSE level, he had one-toone support 50 per cent of the time, while at A-level he had an assistant for all three subjects. He also has a pen that can read out printed text line by line and computer software that can read words on-screen.

Strangely, although he is dyslexic, he does not suffer from dyscalculia – difficulty in understanding numbers – even though they both relate to how the brain interprets symbols.

“At A-level, I studied maths, further maths and chemistry. I picked maths because it is something I can do mostly by myself and that makes me feel more independent,” Oliver said.

Although he watches physics videos on Youtube in his own time, he picked chemistry at A-level because it dealt with fewer abstract concepts that required a lot of writing. For the exams, Oliver had his own room so he could dictate his answers to a scribe.

He said: “All my one-to-ones were brilliant. Mrs Morgan, my maths one-to-one, was actually due to retire while I was still at school but she said she would stay on to see me through my A-levels. And Mrs Watson, my key one-to-one, has been with me for seven years.

“I think among my teachers, Mrs Haggett changed the way she taught the most. At the start, she would just give us all something to read, but then she started making videos for me to watch and everyone ended up benefiting from those.”

Although 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.

“He has to put in the hours and slowly implement the knowledge. So, for him, it’s just about having a good day or a bad day,” she said.

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.”

Oliver’s can-do attitude has seen him through every educational hurdle up until now, Sophie said. “A lot of his success is down to him being an incredibly hard worker and his decision not to let his dyslexia limit him. At each stage of Oliver’s education, there have been new challenges, but he has overcome all of them. He has always had a lot of naysayers, but he has always proved them wrong.”

“The support he has had at Ralph Allen School has also been phenomenal, particularly from the SEN department.”

Oliver is now 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.

As a former player for Oldfield Boys, he said he was looking forward to joining the university rugby club, and possibly rowing. “I don’t know if I will have time for both,” he laughed, “but I’m going to try.”

It wasn’t until Year 6 that I started to notice a difference between myself and my classmates, but I never felt stupid. I just knew reading was something I couldn’t do and there was no point getting upset about it Oliver Chadwick, above