A STUDENT from Swindon has become one of a handful of people to complete all the questions set by an online maths teaching platform.

Natalie Cole, 16, a pupil at Dorcan Academy has joined just 68 students and teachers, out of 1.3 million users, who have completed the HegartyMaths website.

“I didn’t really realise what had happened,” said Natalie.

“My mum was talking about it and I didn’t really understand what she was talking about. But then the headteacher phoned up and I realised it was actually quite a big deal.”

Natalie, who has been studying at home in Walcot during lockdown, answered the questions in 104.5 hours.

“We used to do it mostly as homework when at school, but it’s really good for revision,” she told the Adver.

“I was doing it anyway and then in lockdown there was not much to do, so I just thought I’d do some more.”

She said: “It sticks closely to the exam curriculum and you watch a tutorial and examples and then answer questions based on that.

“I sort of made a joke about finishing it all once in a maths lesson to one of my friends, and then we just carried on from there and took it seriously. She was like ‘I bet you won’t’, so I did!”

The Year 11 student is planning to go continue her studies at Cirencester College or New College in September where she will be studying maths, biology and chemistry for A-Level.

Her head teacher Sherryl Bareham said: “I am incredibly proud of Natalie.

“At a time when her exams had been cancelled and life as she knew it altered beyond recognition, instead of giving up, Natalie set about achieving something quite remarkable.

“She is an outstanding student and an inspiration to all her peers. I hope that she gets the grades that she has worked so hard for and deserves.”

Founded by maths teachers Collin Hegarty and Brian Arnold, the award-winning online platform grew out of YouTube tutorials they started making for their own students nine years ago.

The website says: “We had a bigger dream to make an online platform that taught, assessed and tracked everything a child needs to learn in school maths from upper primary to IGCSE level.”