True but after highlighting poverty in China, the turn around in fortunes should also have been highlighted. Personally it wasn't relevant to mention that Susan was poor when she was 7 as it doesn't have any real relevance unlesss it continued.

This article from the Evening Standard offers possible answers to some questions about Susan's background.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifest...s-boardroom.do

"The seven-year-old Ma's robustness was tested in a different way when they moved to Cairns in Australia, where her father had gone when she was one to earn money for the family. "When I first arrived I was enrolled at a state school, and I didn't speak any English. But one thing I was very good at was maths, because you don't need to know the language for that. I used to get 100 per cent in all the tests and the other kids got really angry with me."

The experience drove her to learn the language within two months from a set of English books her father had bought her. "After that the bullying scaled back."

A move to London after her parents separated five years later called upon Ma's precocious development straight away. The 12-year-old conducted the negotiations for a loan her mother needed when they moved into their first flat, and she signed herself up at Croydon High School. "I remember calling up the school and enrolling myself. They could tell that I was a little girl and asked to speak to my mum, but I said 'No!'"

Ma has always been a high achiever, getting straight A*s at GCSE and three As at A-level (she laughs off the B in German). She went on to UCL where she studied philosophy and economics but "didn't go out much, maybe once every two weeks".

What she was doing was selling. She spent the summer break between school and university developing her range of natural cosmetics - an idea spawned when she worked on a cosmetics stall at a local market and "saw how much money I was making for the boss and how little he was paying me". By the time term began she had a product and a manufacturer in place "so I could go out and sell at weekends".

"My education was 80 per cent my priority and my business 20 per cent," she says, although it's easy to imagine that 20 per cent of Ma's industry is more than many of us manage altogether."

So Chinese.

Thanks, Takae - we get a bit more about Oz and finally find out what happened to Dad. Again the poverty is only mentioned in relation to Shanghai but there is still some mystery about the school fees - though I'm not really sure I will be losing any sleep over it

Thanks for the link Takae
Whilst it is a lovely story, I wish it were that simple to get into a fee paying school with the reputation of the school in Croydon.
It is a little bit more complicated then just signing herself up to a school. The fees mean that only an adult can sign the contract. However, I am getting used to Susan's somewhat rose tinted, simplistic view of the world. I wouldn't do business with her though,

Not sure if you've considered the obvious. But perhaps her father paid her school fees.

I think they like to put anything in The Final Five that makes a good story. Susan and Natasha both had known poverty in childhood and Tom had his dyslexia; all made a kind of "triumph against the odds" story.

Yes it's more than possible that he did. Obviously somebody did. It was the simplistic description I was commenting on. Susan gaves us the impression that she did it all herself as her mother couldn't speak English. The process is just a bit more complicated then she describes

Quite so! The tried and tested X factor formula.

I was quite impressed that Tom saw his dyslexia in a positive light and not as a disadvantage.

Those who follow Strictly Come Dancing will remember the latest series was won by a dyslexic, widely acknowledged as the most gifted celeb dancer ever on Strictly. My pro dancer friend said Kara is professional standard, and better than many on potential. I agree.

The thing about dyslexics is that their slight verbal slowness prevents them from coming over too slick, too lippy. A rather endearing manner as seen from Tom. Dyslexics have many hurdles to overcome, and those who do, have something extra.

She never mentioned she paid her school fees when she was 12. She only started her business at 18 and only mentioned she paid her university fees.

This is the quote from the newspaper article
I did not suggest that she paid her own fees. I was just commenting on her simplistic version of the events. This was also the line she took in the programme

Croydon High School will consider anyone who can pay their fees - and I presume its part of the Girls Public Day School Trust like many other "High Schools" in the South East.

When we applied for a place for my daughter at the Prep for the GPDST school in Blackheath - the entry process was an application form to be filled in (which included an agreement to pay fees with a direct debit form attached) and an interview at the school - and the interview was with the rising 5 daughter - not us as the parents who had to wait elsewhere while it was going on!

It was hardly rocket science and any capable 12 year old like Susan appears to have been would have been more than able to "sign herself up" for the school.

Its not unusual for children at schools to come from families who don't speak much (if any) English. Because the children tend to pick it up quickkly, its not surprising to find a youngster acting as interpreter for their parents when it comes to offiicialdom. My sister taught at one school in Greenwich where around half of the children (who were mostly of Turkish origin) had parents and extended family who couldn't speak a word of English.

Since joining the school required an adult to sign a legal document committing them to pay the fees then it is not likely or legal that it was Susan that did this. It is effectively a credit agreement
My daughters also went to the local GPDST and they had to pass an entrance test to get into both the junior and senior schools. Even when they were moving from juniors to seniors. It may not be the same for all schools within the group

Of course Susan didn't actually sign for the fees - she would have taken the form home for mum to sign or accompanied (as interpreter) mum to the school for form filling.
Susan's mum had a poor grasp of English at the time, she wasn't incapacitated.

People describe simple, non important issues casually when just chatting.
If she knew every word was going to be picked over in order to discredit her she may be more careful.

They aren't difficult tests though, they are happy to accept anyone average (which is a huge and varied group) or above, they are simply seeking to exclude those who are 'educationally challenged'

At my daughters school (which is in the same group as the Croydon school) it was a proper entrance exam that lasted all day. All the girls from the junior school had to take it and pass it to proceed onto the senior school. (A few didn't make it and had to leave). The exam was also the scholarship exam, with 4 or 6 scholarship places per year out of approx 120 girls. There were about 400 that took the entrance exam in my eldest daughter's year. Most of the scholarships went to exceptionally bright girls. I think 2 were internal candidates and 2 were external in that particular year. I know 2 of those scholarship girls went on to Oxbridge with amazing A levels and they were considered exceptionally gifted from being very young. (one of them had been featured in the newspaper at a very young age for reading The Times or something).
I suppose it equates to the 11+ as exams go but I would not describe them as "not difficult". The competition for places, even from parents prepared to pay the fees, was very high. I know there were many disappointed girls who didn't get in. Even though Susan arrived too late to take the exam for the scholarship, I don't think waving a cheque would have been enough to get a place. I'm sure that she would have still been asked to take the exam. Susan arrived at the height of the property boom and demand for school places was very high at my local school, I'm sure it was the same in Croydon.

Whatever the criteria for entry at the school Susan chose it’s apparent she met every standard required and that continued as she moved through the school.

http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/...ail/story.html

It doesn’t surprise me. She’s an achiever. Whatever one thinks of Miss Ma she’s not without the ability to go places many can only dream about.

Apart from her "Are the French very fond of their children?" prose Susan was always at the very top in every maths class, 100 marks out of 100.

If this account by herself embellishes the truth, then her former classmates will have come out of the woodwork. Susan is now a nationwide celebrity and classmates' stories about her will be eagerly bought by newspapers.

I was never entirely convinced that Susan needed to win to continue being successful. There was something about Susan throughout the whole process that was out of the ordinary and had nothing to do with her rambling out loud in an (almost) empty room or her way of choosing products with Zoe.

We’ll hear more about Susan isn’t my mantra It’s been said by LAS and her school teacher who know far more about Susan and her abilities than anything we saw but that's not to say I would disagree with either of them.