Countdown to a family of prodigies!
SHE started a degree at Oxford aged 15 and was awarded a master’s by 20. So it is little wonder Anne-Marie Imafidon has become Countdown’s maths expert.
And, as she and her four siblings all passed GCSE maths before the age of ten, her family has a strong claim to be the brainiest in Britain.
Anne-Marie, 31, has become the first black co-presenter on the Channel 4 show, standing in for Rachel Riley, who is on maternity leave.
She is hoping to inspire children to aim as high as she and her siblings did.
‘Countdown is an institution and I love maths,’ she said. ‘If I am able to inspire just one more arithmetician or a mathematician by being my authentic self on screen then I am happy to be able to take up that space and show a different side of what arithmeticians can look like.’
Their father, Nigerian-born Professor Chris Imafidon, believes the formula for their success is simple, but the UK education system has continued to get it wrong.
He said: ‘All we need to know is what makes a child tick and allow them to explore that inclination. When we saw one of our children show interest towards music, for example, we allowed her to engage with it without age being a factor.’
Anne-Marie speaks six languages and was one of the youngest students to be awarded a master’s by Oxford University.
The rest of her family is equally remarkable. Christiana, 28, studied at Durham University aged 11 and now has degrees from Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania.
Samantha, 24, passed her maths and statistics GCSE exam aged six. Three years later in 2007, she became the UK’s youngest secondary school pupil.
Twins Peter and Paula, 21, became the youngest to pass A-level maths, aged seven.