HEADING FOR WALES: Neil Barnes.

A YOUNG New Forest student has proved that being profoundly deaf is no bar to academic success.

Noadswood schoolboy Neil Barnes, 16, may be hard of hearing - but hard of learning he is not.

The bright pupil has just won a place at the prestigious Atlantic College in Wales - part of the international United World College that has bases in Canada, Hong Kong, and across Europe.

His predicted grades and positive attitude have won him his place at the college in the Vale of Glamorgan where he will study the International Baccalaureate, a qualification that is recognised world-wide. It is equivalent to four A-levels.

Four As and at least seven straight As are what his teachers expect him to get when he takes his GCSEs next month.

Neil, of Tormead, Dibden Purlieu, has already passed his maths with flying colours after taking the exam a year early.

When he found out that his application was successful the talented teenager said: "I was over the moon. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. It's going to be strange to be away from my family for months on end, but it will prepare me for adult life.''

During his two years Neil, who has ambitions to be a clinical psychologist, will be studying six subjects.

His prized place, which head-teacher John Samuels says has shorter odds than a position at Oxford and Cambridge, will mean a move away for Neil to a room shared with three other students who will all be from different countries.

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