Growing Up Gifted Anya's Smart Moves

Meet the Young Girl Who Thinks Big

- Amy Prebble

To fit in an interview with the Weekly, gifted student Anya Thurner has to miss out on her usual Saturday activities.

The 11-year-old, who divides her time between her German father Christoph and Chinese mother Rose, will normally start with a Chinese lesson, followed by a violin lesson, then piano, then badminton.

If there’s space on the court, she and Rose will practise badminton for another hour. After that, she’ll go to her dad’s house and prepare for the usual Sunday chess tournament.

It’s fair to say that Anya is not your average child. Rose (48) says she noticed fairly early on that her daughter picked things up more quickly than her peers.

“I never thought she was gifted,” says Rose, “but when she was two, I noticed she was able to articulate things really easily. Then when she went to primary school, she progressed academically far more quickly than the others. And I started thinking, ‘What am I going to do with this child if she is feeling bored?’”

Rose and Christoph decided to see if Anya would benefit from going to MindPlus, a programme for gifted children aged 6-13 in which she could work with a specialist teacher for one day each week.

“When she passed the tests to go there, I realised she was really bright,” tells Rose.