School’s expert teaching is top class for children
GOING to school gave Isabelle Watts panic attacks. Her dyslexia made her feel stupid and she stopped wanting to try to read and write, says her mother.
The nine year-old is not alone. In Wales, as elsewhere in the UK, an estimated one in 10 people, including children, have dyslexia.
Mainstream schools do not always have the resources, time or opportunity to give them the expert help needed, say parents.
They have described how lack of understanding about the condition nearly ruined their children’s education and self esteem, leaving them feeling “small” and “destroyed” until they got help at a unique specialist unit in Wales.
They detail how some were bullied, suffered anxiety and low selfesteem before attending Tomorrow’s Generation in Lisvane, a unit set up by entrepreneur Anders Hedlund, who himself has dyslexia, a condition which causes problems learning to read and write.
Isabelle, like other pupils who attend daily lessons there, has permission to take time away from her mainstream primary to attend one or two days a week.
Anders, whose now grown-up son has dyslexia, established the Tomorrow’s Generation Trust in 1999 with after school and holiday clubs until the unit opened full time in 2014.
Its Launchpad for Learning classes for seven to 11 year-olds run from 9am to 3pm each day for children who have been identified as having specific difficulties with literacy and/ or numeracy.
Pupils don’t wear uniform, address staff by first names and do not attend full-time. They mix one or two days at the unit alongside going to mainstream English and Welshmedium primaries or home schooling.
And demand for the fee-paying service is growing.
Starting with four pupils in 2014 Launchpad for Learning now has 30 pupils aged seven to 11 who come from across Wales from as far as Pembrokeshire and Brecon.
Anders is keen to keep costs down to ensure the service is inclusive.
Some bursaries are available for children qualifying for free school meals and as a registered charity Tomorrow’s Generation is a nonprofit organisation with all fees going towards its running costs.
And Anders wants to keep it small and intimate.
Only eight of the 30 children come at any one time, so specially-trained staff can give them the expert help they need.
As their day begins some pupils warm their hands up popping bubble wrap. They squeeze shaving foam out to write on and don headphones to carry out a series of personalised literacy tasks on laptops. Everything is calm as they get to work. Their chairs are specially designed to be tiltable without falling over.
“Some children are bouncier than others and need to jiggle while they work,” explains high level teaching assistant Debbie Lazell.
Results are remarkable. One former pupil is now a cancer research scientist at Cardiff University and many go on to high school with confidence that they can read and write well enough to access the curriculum.
Crucially, say parents and teachers, the pupils’ often battered self esteem is raised at Tomorrow’s Generation where dyslexia is seen as creating a different way of learning, rather than a learning difficulty.
One mother, Michelle Owen, recalls how she sought help when her daughter Isabella was struggling to learn sounds aged five and told her: “I’m not like the other children I can’t read books like them.”
The tiny, open-plan school she is joining for a day each week next September is warm, welcoming and bright, with work, pictures and certificates celebrating pupils’ work pinned to the walls. Behind these cheerful surroundings some of the children have far less cheerful stories about how they got here.
While the school, its teachers and parents are keen to stress they work with mainstream schools, they feel funds and expertise can be lacking, especially as dyslexia forms only a tiny part of the Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE).
Sian Watts explains how primary school made her daughter Isabelle feel after her difficulties became obvious aged four.
“As she got older, she became anxious, thought she was stupid and withdrew from wanting to try to read or write. She started having panic attacks going into school and it was very distressing for her.
“My daughter felt anxious, left out, different and was not having an inclusive education. Luckily I saw an advert for Tomorrow’s Generation.
“I rang and spoke to them and I can honestly say I felt like crying.
“Here was a place where my daughter wouldn’t feel different or stupid, where powers are understood, accepted and positively embraced.
“She looks forward to going and seems to retain what is taught. It is an amazing place run by wonderful people and I cannot stress enough the difference it has made.”
Sandy’s daughter Georgia Boetgger-White, who is bilingual in Welsh and English, has come out of her shell to such an extent in the year she has been at Tomorrow’s Generation that she has gone from being unwilling to speak to asking to take acting classes.
“Before she joined Georgia loathed reading out loud in front of anyone and even speaking in front of her class and sometimes even family.
“Last September she joined a weekly class and her confidence has increased massively. She has almost transformed from a shy, quiet girl that got bullied when she was six and seven to a confident girl who is happy to speak up for others and herself and enjoys writing stories, history, volunteering at the stables and helping out other children.
“I honestly do not know what I would have done without Tomorrow’s Generation School.”
Tests were “demolishing” him, says Morgan’s mother Claire.
Now 10, he has blossomed after several years at Launchpad. But she worries what will happen next term when he has to leave for secondary.
The unit says it is too complex to take pupils out of secondary for a day or two for specialist help, but works to get pupils to a point where they can confidently progress to high school.
“In mainstream Morgan was pigeonholed as a slow learner, whereas in fact he has an active memory and a quick humour, but he has great difficulties in recording information on paper,” says his mother.
“Now he really enjoys his day a week. He is developing an improved self esteem.”
Sitting in her office filled with dyslexia specific learning tools, including the Ace dictionary for people who can’t spell, lead specialist teacher Helen Grimes says she knows, as a former mainstream primary teacher, just how much pressure schools are under.
She believes many schools do good work but don’t always have resources to concentrate on individual needs of dyslexic children.
“We learn whether words rhyme or not and how many syllables and long and short vowels and how that links to spelling. Someone with dyslexia processes sounds differently.
Former Wales rugby star Lee Byrne is a trustee of Tomorrow’s Generation.
He says dyslexia blighted his school days and he hopes there is more awareness in the two decades since he left school.
“There was not much awareness of dyslexia when I was in school. I hope there is more now. You are somewhere where you just don’t want to be,” he recalls.
“At Tomorrow’s Generation the way of teaching is different.”