SUPER Kent pupil Alexander Shannon has achieved a record-breaking eight grade A passes at A-level.

The 18-year-old, a student at King’s School, Canterbury, was the highest achiever in the UK this year. He took exams in maths, further maths, statistics, physics, chemistry, French, German and music.

Alexander, of Harbledown Park, Harbledown, near Canterbury is going on to Christ’s College, Cambridge, to study maths and physics.

He said: “Working for these A-levels involved a lot of juggling of my study which was due to the fact the school was prepared to accommodate me with how to arrange my timetable.”

Alexander says he almost fell into doing eight A-levels because he didn’t want to drop certain subjects.

“It wasn’t that I announced that I would be doing eight A-levels,” he said, “and if it was a subject I enjoyed, it didn’t feel like work.

“I am very proud to have won the place at Cambridge and the school was very pleased for me and has been supportive throughout.”

Alexander hopes eventually to do academic research in maths and theoretical physics.

In July he represented Britain in the International Maths Olympiad in Athens where he won a bronze medal.

His UK team came 20th out of 85 competing nations. The top three countries were China, the USA and Russia.