William can count on following his passion after achieving top GCSE scores

A GIFTED mathematician is counting on following his passion after achieving top GCSE scores.

William Keens, who has been recognised as one of the top-performing young mathematicians in the country, gained five top grade 9s, four 8s, two 7s and a 6.

“I am really happy with my results and got a higher score in my further maths, which was more difficult, than in my normal maths, which I’m pleased with,” he said.

Also a keen runner, musician and actor, the 16-year-old, from Easingwold near York, will study maths, further maths, chemistry and physics at A-level and his ambition is to study maths at university.

For the third year running, William was one of around 600 pupils out of hundreds of thousands of entries to make it to the final round of the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) national competition.

Picked to go to theUKMT maths summer school this summer thanks to his success in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, his scores placed him among the top 200 young mathematicians in the UK for his age group.

“I really enjoyed the experience and got to meet lots of like-minded people, as well as getting to talk to specialists in their field of research. "I like the UKMT challenges because they encourage lots of out-of-the-box thinking.

"I love maths because of its infinite potential for new problems to amaze and inspire," he said.

Running competitively for six years, William recently claimed silver in the 3,000m at the North Yorkshire championships.

A member City of York Athletic Club, he trains twice a week on the track, plus one race and a long, slow runs at the weekend.

He has also played leading roles in drama productions at school and plays in the Big Band, having gained Grade 8 in piano and Grade 5 in saxophone.