Mohammed studied 7 GCSEs with NEC and achieved high grades in all of them, overcoming the challenge of having partially impaired vision. He has been home educated since Year 10. Mohammed is particularly proud of obtaining the top grade of 9 in biology, chemistry and physics. He is now going on to study A levels in chemistry, biology and maths at his local college.

Mohammed is a sixteen-year-old student from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Mohammed attended a local secondary school until Year 10, however he did not feel that he was reaching his full potential there. Mohammed is registered as having partially impaired vision but his school did not properly cater for his unique learning needs. Instead, he was unfairly placed in the lowest learning sets. Mohammed and his family knew that he could achieve great results if his special educational needs were adequately understood and addressed so they made the big step to withdraw Mohammed from his school and enrol for GCSEs with NEC to let Mohammed flourish. 

“I made the best decision of my life when I left my local school after Year 10 and enrolled with NEC to prove my educational potential.”

Despite Mohammed’s rocky start in education, he has been determined to become a doctor for as long as he can remember. His parents taught him to respect and love all people, regardless of their background and the importance of working hard and never giving up. He is particularly keen to specialise in cardiology because he has a strong family history of chronic heart disease. Mohammed was deeply attached to his grandmother who died as a result of long-term heart disease, therefore he wanted to be a heart physician to make a huge difference to people’s lives. Mohammed is passionate about helping people and regularly volunteers in a social work setting. Being a qualified Hafiz of the Holy Quran, Mohammed voluntarily dedicated himself to teaching children at a local Arabic school which he considers both a hobby and privilege to transfer knowledge and ethical aptitudes to our future generations.

“I appreciated the highly enthusiastic tutors’ support and feedback, which kept my motivation going to reach my goals.”

With the right kind of support from NEC and his parents, Mohammed truly valued the freedom to learn independently in a way that suited him. Mohammed found himself rapidly improving and progressing in his academic knowledge and achieved highly, compared to the low expectations that had been initially set by his old school. Mohammed credits his success to maintain discipline in his studies and his strong determination to attend medical school, as he knew he was more than capable of getting there with the right support.

“I’m determined to join medical school after my A levels.”

Mohammed strongly believes that the UK education system has a long way to go in actively supporting disabled students to achieve their full potential. Until such a time as schools can properly cater for talented students that have special educational needs, like Mohammed, many parents choose to home educate, often with the support of a distance learning provider like NEC. We support home educating families to build the best set of options for the student, which often allows for a much more tailored and suited approach to education that a place in a traditional school can. Mohammed has a clear career goal in mind and he felt that school was holding him back. The success of his GCSE results show that independent learning has worked well for Mohammed and he feels ready to take on the challenge of A levels. 

“It would have been impossible to fulfil my dreams without my parent’s and NEC’s patience, support, motivation and 24/7 accessibility to my learning materials during my learning. NEC has equipped me to thrive and achieve higher grades to prove my true potential and determination to fulfil my future aspirations of being a heart physician.” 

We congratulate Mohammed on his results and wish him the best in his next steps in his journey to becoming a doctor.