Neither of his parents were university-educated

Neither of his parents were university-educated.He started his first GCSE correspondence course in electronics with the National Extension College when he was seven. The NEC wouldn't supply a tutor since he was so young; with the help of his parents, Jamie fumbled through the books without one But by the time he was nine, his parents couldn't keep up. They had been teaching him at home because the primary school couldn't cope. So they took him to see Dr Peter White, senior admissions tutor in electronics at Plymouth University He confirmed Jamie's extraordinary talent. The first thing he does when he gets back from school is to go out and play. "Jamie is an only child, who lives in a guest house run by his father in Lifton, Devon His mother died last year. He was reading by then, in order to understand the instructions with the kits.

He could concentrate for hours with a screwdriver in his hands. Today, at 13, he is taking chunks of an undergraduate robotics and electronics course at Plymouth University while studying for an A-level in computer sciences at Plymouth college of further education, and a second A-level in electronics at his comprehensive school, Tavistock College."He doesn't feel he is any different from anyone else," says his father, Philip Baxter-Martin "We brought him up to believe that. By 13 months he was checking all the plugs in the house to make sure they were wired properly At age four he had made two radios out of kits. When Jamie Baxter-Martin was still in nappies he was fascinated by plugs and sockets. Most parents would have reached for the plastic safety covers, but his encouraged him. They just made sure he knew that he had to switch the appliance off before beginning his investigations Then they showed him how to wire a plug.

If the proposal from the independent schools goes ahead, that could become a reality.. He recommended standard recognition of degree credits, so that children could do part of a degree before going to university. At Grove School, Handsworth, 10- and 11-year-olds receive lectures from an atomic physicist at Birmingham University. The headteacher, Pam Bailey, says: "They love working at that level, and find it challenging and stimulating."In a paper written before the general election, David Jamieson, a former teacher, now MP for Plymouth Devonport and a government whip, called for more to be done for gifted children.

Under Tim Brighouse, its innovative chief education officer, it has set up what it calls the University of the First Age. Children aged 11 to 14 attend week-long summer schools organised with the University of Central England, where they are encouraged to look at how they learn and what techniques suit them.The notion of accelerated learning using university academics has even extended to primary level in Birmingham. It's more productive that way."Birmingham is another city with links between school and university. For the OU course, you do the work in your own time and at your own pace.

"At school we get lectured at and told `you have to do your work now and you have to hand it in'. In the current year, 12 sixth-formers are taking the OU maths course and six are on a science course.Kirk Jepson, 17, had to drop A-level physics and sees the OU foundation course as an alternative He wants to study genetics at Newcastle University. Monkseaton Community High School, in Whitley Bay, has done a deal with the Open University, whereby groups of sixth-formers take chunks of undergraduate courses in maths and science on top of their A-level courses. It enables students who dropped maths at GCSE to carry on with it, and gives them skills in independent learning, which helps to prepare them for university.