York teenager Oliver Pearson has been awarded a military medal for achievements described as ‘no less than amazing’.
Oliver, 16, has received the honour after achieving excellent GCSE grades – despite moving to six different schools due to his dad’s armed forces career.
Oliver was born in Germany where his dad was serving in the Royal Signals. He started school there, before moving to the UK in 2015, aged seven.
Since then, he’s attended two further primary schools and three different secondary schools, as his family moved when his dad was assigned a new military posting.
In 2020, Oliver had just started a new school in year 7 when the country was plunged into lockdown.
He came to York last year, starting at Millthorpe School midway through his GCSE studies.
Oliver had to drop a subject because his new school wasn’t offering it and then took extra lessons of engineering to fill the gaps in his timetable.
Despite the disruption to his GCSE plans, Oliver managed to achieve good grades in all 7 of his GCSE subjects. He now hopes to follow in his dad’s military footsteps and has applied for an RAF apprenticeship.
Now Oliver has been named ‘Little Trooper of the Month’ after being nominated by mum Jacqueline, who said:
We are so incredibly proud of Oliver. It’s not been easy for him moving home all the time but he has always taken it in his stride and has grown into a confident young man, as well as an amazing older sibling to his brother Harry and sister Emma.
He really threw himself into his GCSE studies and faced into the challenge with determination. He’s an inspiration to us all and we wish him all the luck in the world as he follows his dreams and continues to take on new adventures.
Little Troopers is a charity supporting all military children who have parents serving in the armed forces.
Founder Louise Fetigan said:
Oliver’s story highlights just how challenging it can be to grow up in the Armed Forces. Many of us find change hard, so to navigate moving to a different country at a young age and attending multiple different schools while still achieving brilliant qualifications is no less than amazing.
We think Oliver deserves to recognised for being resilient and determined and we hope he keeps his Little Troopers medal as a reminder of everything he has achieved.
Oliver will receive a medal from Little troopers. along with a £50 and gift voucher and certificate.