Nine-year-old Pranav has been a student at the Kumon Lucan Study Centre in Ireland since August 2013. He studies both the Kumon Maths Programme and the Kumon English Programme.

Pranav now studies maths four years ahead of his school level, and works to the Kumon International Standard (an international approximation of school grade level) in his English studies.

Instructor, Stephen Ussher, said: "Two words that spring to mind when describing Pranav are: 'happy' and 'hardworking'. If you were to visit the study centre this Friday you would find Pranav working away on his maths and English worksheets in a very efficient and calm manner."

Pranav's journey to studying positive and negative numbers (almost four years ahead of his school level) began less than three years ago, when he was just six. His earliest memory of Kumon is "counting and number lines", which he would have studied in his first weeks. At his enrolment, previous Instructor Dolapo observed that Pranav was reliant on finger counting at the time. How far he has come!

Pranav's parents Jitha and Unni, who play a huge role in supporting Pranav's development, explained that they enrolled Pranav initially to compensate for the gap between the level of development a student experiences in the early stages of school in India, compared with that in Ireland.

Unni, a maths graduate himself, explains the main benefit they have found from Pranav's Kumon studies is that he needs less support to do his homework; Pranav has been working ahead of his school level for some time now, meaning he is able to complete his homework independently.

Unni is particularly impressed with how the in-built repetition in the Kumon worksheets has embedded mathematical methods, saying: "He'll remember these methods forever."

Jitha explains how Pranav's love for reading has really blossomed since taking up the Kumon English Programme: "It's very common for Pranav to come home from a busy Saturday of activities, visibly tired, yet insist that he wants to read just one page of his book before going to sleep". Pranav's current favourites include the series of Yuck, Jake Cake and Dirty Bertie.

Pranav explains what he enjoys most about his Kumon studies: "I like being ahead of my class in maths. My teacher gives me extra work as I'm always finished really quickly". Pranav's other interests include Tae Kwando, swimming, badminton, chess, dancing and languages. Quite the busy schedule!

Instructor, Stephen, added: "He is a pleasure to work with. Pranav is one of the happiest, most humble kids I know. He's as happy playing with his (very articulate) four-year-old sister as he is doing secondary school-level maths.

"He is as hardworking as he is humble, qualities he has obviously inherited from his parents. Pranav is an example of what can be achieved when both the student and parents are dedicated and want to excel."

Pranav was recently rewarded with the January 'Maths Student of the Month' award, having progressed onto a new level, through an incredible level of dedication and hard work.

Well done Pranav! Keep up the good work.