Turning barriers into breakthroughs with Omari McQueen

16-year-old Omari McQueen is no stranger to breaking records, from earning the title of “Britain’s youngest TV chef” to starting his own vegan food company.

He’s also no stranger to breaking barriers, especially as an everyday student. Before finding his place with us at King’s InterHigh, Omari faced major obstacles in mainstream education. In one previous school, teachers told him he wasn’t “smart enough” to take his exams simply because of his dyslexia.

“My answer to that was, ‘Not my kid,’” says Omari’s mum, Leah, recalling the moment she decided to forge a new path for her son’s schooling. Leah vowed to “get him to a stage that he needs to be at, but by concentrating on things that he’s passionate about and going about it in a different way.”

That different way turned out to be transformative. Now, Omari is even taking on the challenge of helping more children learn with unique methods by creating his own educational app. We talked to Omari and his mum about what makes their app special, their unique experiences with learning, and how Omari balances it all with online schooling at King’s InterHigh.

Underestimated in school

Omari’s early school years paint a stark picture of the difficulties faced by so many young people who think differently. His biggest challenges began in primary school, when Omari’s Year 5 teacher first declared he wouldn’t be able to take his statutory SATs exams the following year due to his dyslexia.

In a nutshell, Omari explains his experience with dyslexia as “finding it hard with my reading, writing, and spelling.” People with dyslexia have a different way of processing information. While it’s most well-known as a learning difficulty which can affect literacy skills, it can also have an impact on many areas of life, from organisation to physical coordination.

Of course, while children who are dyslexic may need a different way of learning, it doesn’t have to stop students from succeeding in school and beyond. Omari is an ambassador for the charity Made With Dyslexia, for example, which recently partnered with famous entrepreneur and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who has dyslexia himself.

Omari’s mum, Leah, never underestimated her son’s potential. However, despite dyslexia affecting one in 10 people in the UK, it’s still widely misunderstood. In spite of Leah’s efforts to find solutions, the school had already made up its mind.

That’s when Leah first decided to homeschool Omari.

A different approach to learning

Of her seven children, Omari’s siblings Makhai and Kiara were also homeschooled. “Both of them have autism,” explains Leah, but she couldn’t find a school that adapted to their needs. While some schools did have programmes in place, Leah found that they were better suited to students with different needs than her children.

Likewise, she also knew that Omari’s own learning needs required a different approach than his school could offer. Leah’s solution? Focusing on Omari’s unique strengths and the things he’s most passionate about.

When they first started homeschooling, Leah soon realised that following standard teaching methods at home wasn’t the answer. Instead, the breakthrough came when she started trying methods tailored to Omari personally: “One day, it all just started to click into place.”

In particular, Leah was able to use Omari’s interest in cooking as a starting point to reshape his learning experience. Following recipes in cookbooks, he soon began to read fluently, learn mathematical measurements, and more.

Ready for a return to mainstream school, Omari then rejoined his classmates for secondary school in Year 7. Unfortunately, however, when the pandemic hit, the family found the same problems surfaced again. “During lockdown,” recalls Omari, “they would send me these letters with my homework in a holder, and the writing on top said ‘for underachievers.’”

So, once again, Omari returned to home education, and his family soon found a similar learning philosophy here at King’s InterHigh.

Online school, personalised to Omari

At King’s InterHigh, we also fiercely believe learning should be shaped around a child’s unique strengths, differences, and needs. First joining us in Year 8, Omari is one of the many students in our community who have been able to thrive with a more personalised style of education.

For one, says Omari, the support from teachers is a gamechanger. “They understand that I have dyslexia,” he explains, and he’s able to keep in close contact with them for help and guidance even when he’s too busy to attend his lessons live. “I’m able to message them to ask exactly what they want me to do for a task,” says Omari, “and they’ll explain everything.”

Omari also loves how much his achievements are celebrated and uplifted. “I love getting achievement points,” he tells us with a grin, including in subjects that aren’t his natural favourites.

Omari is currently studying IGCSEs in English Language, English Literature, Drama, Film, Art, and all three sciences. While his favourite subjects have always been history and creative picks like art (where he’s taught by his favourite King’s InterHigh teacher, Emily Welham), Omari says he also gets lots of achievement points in IGCSE Chemistry too.

Learning is personalised in lots of ways at King’s InterHigh. Students can choose from a broad range of subjects, for example, to tailor their education to their passions; they also get to follow personalised learning pathways powered by AI, which complement how we teach.

For students like Omari, there’s also the benefit of the adaptive learning features built into our school platform. “Changing colours of text,” for example, is a feature Omari sometimes uses for his tasks and a technique known to be of great help to many people with dyslexia.

Finding freedom in flexible learning

Leah has also noticed the difference, both in her son’s enthusiasm for school and in the flexibility it affords their family. Unsurprisingly, balancing so many pursuits outside of school comes with an incredibly busy schedule. On any given day, Omari may need to work on his business endeavours or shoot for a television show, all while maintaining his IGCSE studies.

To keep everything in line, Leah says, “We’ve got a rule at home: If Omari wants to film, our deal is that he has to do his lessons during lunchtime, after filming, and on the weekend.” Naturally, that’s something that’s only possible with the flexibility of online school. Since all King’s InterHigh lessons are recorded for viewing at any time, Omari is able to fit his learning around his life with ease. If he’s busy until 2:00pm, for example, Leah says he can easily start his lessons when a normal school day would end, wrapping up his work at 5:00 or 6:00pm.

It’s a routine that worked out particularly well when Omari filmed his CBBC show Meet the McQueens in 2022, but it comes in handy for all sorts of goals he’s pursuing — like his new app, for example.

How Omari is pioneering change

When Omari envisioned his upcoming learning app, he drew inspiration from his own learning journey. The idea came to him last year, when mum Leah needed to change her diet for health reasons.

While using his own expertise as a vegan chef to help her, Omari spotted an untapped opportunity to help children learn about healthy eating, and more in a way that would engage and excite them.

But this is more than just a nutrition app. With over 100 lessons covering everything from fitness to food education, Omari is building a comprehensive learning platform designed to grow with children from nursery age right through to sixth form. And, what’s best is that the lessons are based on the same learning philosophy that helped Leah get Omari where he is today.

Just like Omari learned literacy and numeracy through cooking, children, parents, and schools will be able to use the app to incorporate fun food and fitness content into subjects like maths, science, and more.

Plus, Leah jokes, “If Fortnite was a GCSE, Omari would pass it with flying colours!” As such, Omari decided to include ‘gamified’ learning elements into his app. Children will drop into vibrant virtual lands and conquer them to receive rewards, accompanied by characters like Chef Omari himself.

Perhaps most importantly to Omari and Leah, the app is also being designed with accessibility at its heart. Drawing from his own experiences learning with dyslexia, Omari has made sure to include features that will support different learning needs. Children will be able to have their avatar read questions out loud, use sign language, and even change their screen colours for easier reading, similarly to how Omari learns with King’s InterHigh.

Going beyond expectations

TV shows, cookbooks, and app development may sound like a lot for a young person to balance with their schooling, but Omari gets the support he needs to take it all in his stride.

Speaking on how he balances it all without stress, Omari explains, “I just want to be successful. Education is fun because I’m doing the subjects that I love doing, and whenever I’m doing my business, I’m also doing something that I love doing.”

Today, as he takes on his IGCSEs with confidence, Omari is a far cry from the student his previous schools once saw him as. In turn, the progress he’s made has also empowered him to take on some of his biggest dreams, like writing cookbooks. Omari was able to pen his second book while studying with King’s InterHigh, considering the pieces “one of my biggest achievements, since I do have dyslexia.”

As he goes on to add more and more triumphs to his list, Omari continues to show everyone around him that differences don’t have to be limitations. The same young boy who was sadly told he wasn’t capable is proving every day that there’s nothing you can’t do with the right support: something we at King’s InterHigh strive to bring to each and every student.