NAWEED Anwar has broken free of the isolated world he was born into. Thanks to British Sign Language and an innovative way of preparing for examinations, he is now on his way to university. PAULINE HAWKINS charts his progress. EVERY mother is proud of her children -- but Shamim Anwar has more cause than most.

Her profoundly deaf son Naweed, 21, has lived in a world of silence all his life and at primary school in Nottingham was labelled "stupid" by his unthinking peers.

He will not be able to read this article without support, because he communicates using British Sign Language, which is structured differently to the English language. Even though he can read and understand individual words, he would be defeated by the sentence construction.

But the Blackburn College student, who has grown in confidence over the years, has excelled in art and design and in the autumn will take up a place at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, to study for a degree in fine art.

According to Stuart Walpole, his communication support worker at the college for the past five years, Naweed and the college have presented a challenge to the examining body in the way his work was presented for marking.

This included his art history theoretical work being presented on a video, "signed" by Naweed with Stuart's voice-over, and an essay written in British Sign Language and transcribed into English for the examiners to read.

Naweed's assignment for his A-level photography course was on the subject of meat-eating versus vegetarianism. Although television, radio and newspaper commentaries on the subject of foot and mouth have passed him by, he could obviously see the distressing pictures of animals being rounded up for slaughter and culled cattle being burned on pyres.

He visited abattoirs and butchers' shops to take photographs of animal carcasses and began to build up his portfolio of work. From his photographs he made rough sketches and moved on to putting paint onto canvas, creating three smaller canvases and one large one for a BTec national diploma in general art and design. Naweed specialises in abstract painting and admires German abstract expressionism.

He used mixed media -- ink, varnish paint and conti crayon (compressed charcoal) -- and collage to represent the ripping of the animal's skin and the torment it had endured. His tutors say he has a natural instinct to use a variety of media that makes his work special.

Through Stuart, Naweed said: "People look at my work and they do not really understand what it is about. At first they think it is childlike but there are lots of things involved and that it why it is important to me, as a deaf artist, to express myself using this style." Naweed lives with his mum and younger brothers Tauseef Anwar, 13, and Daniel Sharif, four, in Romney Walk, Blackburn. He left Ashton-on-Ribble High School, Preston, five years ago and started a one-year NVQ foundation course in business at Blackburn College. After passing that he moved on to media but realised that certain aspects of media, such as radio, would not be open to him. So he chose art and design and completed the course at foundation level. As he cannot be influenced by what other people say, his work comes from his own research and his own thoughts.

Stuart, who has worked with Naweed from day one, is one of 10 communication support workers at Blackburn College. There are about 50 other support workers who work with people with learning difficulties and physical disabilities and a number of note-takers who support people who are visually impaired. Staff and students have come to compare Naweed and Stuart with Laurel and Hardy as they have been a virtually inseparable partnership. But it has been one which has helped to provide Naweed with the confidence to make friends and express himself through his art.

Stuart said: "The college must take some credit for providing the support. The tutors in the art and design building have been absolutely fantastic."

His siblings, including little Daniel, communicate with him in sign language. And Naweed has fitted in well with fellow students who have made him feel one of the crowd.

"We have a right laugh. I have been to parties and nightclubs with them," he said.

His mum, who has limited knowledge of sign language, is proud of her son's achievements and laughs when she recalls how he has used her as an unwitting model.

"Sometimes he does pictures of me when I am asleep," she said. Now Naweed is looking forward to continuing his expressionism and, although he has no fixed ideas about what he might do when he leaves university, has discussed the possibility of becoming an art teacher for other deaf students.