Industry news
There has been renewed focus on supporting the learning of students with dyslexia in recent months. The Dyslexia Screening Bill was presented by MP Matt Hancock in December 2021 and more recently we have seen the SEND Alternative Green Paper from the UK Government, which looks to change the culture and practice in mainstream education to be more inclusive and better at identifying and supporting SEN through earlier intervention.
Schools not the best place for children with dyslexia
The Dyslexic entrepreneur, Theo Paphitis, once shared comments from his final school report on Twitter. It stated, “Theo is a splendid person with fine qualities but unfortunately there are no examinations in this field.” His ‘fine qualities’ did not serve him well in school, but he has gone on to become an incredibly successful businessman.
In a video by Made by Dyslexia, Space Scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock states that schools are “not teaching kids to think, they are teaching kids to pass exams.” Many of the skills required to be successful in school and pass exams often focus on the weaknesses of children with dyslexia and other SEN.
Being a teacher is hard. According to a poll by the National Education Union, one in three teachers plan to quit teaching within five years, with many concerned about poor wellbeing and their workload being too high.
Behaviour and attainment
Change is needed to make the Education System a fairer place to exist for all concerned. I believe that the Education System is very much implementing a ‘one size fits all’ approach to teaching, wasting valuable resources to manage pupils who cannot deliver on what is unfairly expected of them, when they are not given what they need to excel.