Jay Blades

At the time he had a girlfriend who wrote for him and read for him, so it was still his work that gained a degree. His autobiography is well worth a read. I'm a retired Adult Lit teacher too x

I have a severely dislexic grandson who has a degree in micro-biology. Aged 9 Alex was three years behind with all his subjects. Fortunately his parents were able to get the help he needed for him. Seeing Jay with the blue plastic reminded me of Alex who had glasses with blue lenses. The pairs that child broke don’t bear thinking about, as he wouldn’t wear them in the playground as it made him “different”. They went in his pocket often with disastrous results. Bless him, he is 26 now, holding down a job in London. I’m very proud of Alex.

I just wish they would stop referring to him as a furniture restorer
I first became aware of him when he became famous for painting an Erccol dining chair. He painted one leg a different colour.

I agree with an earlier post from greenlady . I think it’s unfair to blame schools completely. There are many reasons other than dyslexia why children do not learn to read. Attendance being a huge factor as well as parental attitudes. I can remember meeting my own child from reception class. He was so excited as he had been given his first reading book to bring home. He told me that his teacher had said to read the book with Mum or Dad. It was a book with pictures and just one word underneath. I heard one Mum say to her child that she wasn’t going to read with him as it was the teacher’s job. What an awful thing to say and you could see the disappointment on the child’s face. I loved spending time reading to and with my children. It really was one of my greatest pleasures. Both are still avid readers.

Oh Purpledaffodil how awful for your husband! I hope he put her in her place or reported her for her nasty attitude.

I totally agree Cornergran. I too was an adult literacy tutor working in relaxed, supportive and friendly environment. Many students reached their goals learning to read for varied reasons and at their own pace. Then targets, qualifications and standard achievements were introduced. It became too pressured for many, as this is exactly what had put them off in their younger days, so for a second time they were let down.

I love his spirit too. He’s a national treasure. A dear friend of my parents, who I called an uncle, could barely read and write yet he built several such businesses from scratch and was held in high regard as an archaeologist and antiquarian. He fostered my interest in history( my degree is in history) and I loved him dearly.

Many years ago as a volunteer I taught a few people literacy and numeracy. I had one young Mum in particular who wanted to be a hairdresser. Three years later I was so pleased when she was accepted by a local college. Jay Blades was astounding, prepared to disclose his struggle and now success.

I thought it was a very interesting, moving and inspiring programme.

One of my siblings really struggled with reading and writing at primary school in the '50s. He was put at the back of the class with the other 'difficult' children. Teachers didn't want to be bothered with them. The family taught him to read and write and over time he improved in other subjects too. He had a good career but never liked reading and is still hesitant even now. No testing or assessment for Dyslexia (or any other learning disability) was ever suggested.

My husband, a driving instructor, taught several non-readers to drive and pass their tests. Some of them recognised words as images and memorised them. Others could read individual letters of the alphabet but not several of them together as a word. That's how they were able to read number plates on Test. Their coping strategies were amazing! DH also developed some clever ways to help them.

When I worked in a secondary school several students left in Years 11 and 12 still unable to read properly to varying degrees. Teaching staff were sympathetic (most of the time) but simply didn't have the time to help them, and SEN was underfunded and overstretched. All too often this led to non-attendance or school refusal. Some didn't get jobs they applied for because their handwriting was so poor, or they couldn't fill out forms they were given at interviews.

So well done to Jay Blades for speaking publicly about his disability. Maybe other non-readers (for whatever reason) will be encouraged to seek help for a problem that has blighted their lives for so long.

Amazing, i didnt know who he was and i watch The Repair shop, wow !!

I had to Google him after i saw it on here.

The Repair Shop is my favourite programme showing so many talented people,and JAY, well he is marvellous and after seeing the programme about him, I truly admire him,he is a role model for many. Good luck in the future Jay.

He is 1 of 26 children, in various countries.

I've just watched the programme on Iplayer and the big take away for me is that Jay learned to read with a phonics based programme.

My last job was working with struggling readers at secondary school, a job I kind of 'fell' into with no prior experience. It was only by reading and thinking about the process of learning to read that I discovered phonics and the more I explored it the more it and got training with some of the best phonics programmes around, it made so much sense. . Putting what I'd learned into practice made so much difference to the children I worked with.

Jay did amazingly well. Children learning to read with phonics instruction spend time every day, learning the sounds letters represent and how to recognise them instantly and blend them together to work out what the word 'says'. And it takes them about 2 years to become really proficient.

Adults learning to read don't get that sort of intensive practice, which makes it much harder for them. To achieve the level that Jay did in so short a time was a real achievement.

I'm know that many of the ex teachers on here will disagree with me, but phonics has not been the fundamental basis for reading instruction for decades and the statistics on adult illiteracy and the literacy failure of so many people in prisons bears it out.

Reading research has suggested that only about 3% of children can't learn to read. That 20 - 25% of the population have literacy difficulties says more about the failure of past reading teaching than it does about the inability of those people to learn.

I like Jay Blades and enjoyed the programme. I hope that him being so open about his lack of reading skills will inspire others to try.

I was in a queue once in a shop which sold all manner of things, A little boy ran up to his mother with a book in his hand and asked if he could have it. Her answer was "Why do you want that? You've got a book at home."

What impressed me in the Jay Blades programme, apart from following his progress with his volunteer learning tutor, was the visit to the special school, and how the lads there were flourishing with mutual support and high teacher pupil ratios. Goes to show what can be achieved if money and staff are thrown at the problem. Peer ridicule can be hugely damaging.
Our DD had no shortage of books at home and being read to, but was slow to read, and held back by the slowness in other subjects in secondary school, not helped by being bussed to another site for some lessons for local political reasons, when the children were rushed there and back on a coach, with no time to speak to the tutor after lessons and in a different school. We were told in the Parents’ Evening that, “with the best will in the world I cannot give individual attention to 30 pupils” at AS level.
Earlier than that, I had asked for educational assessment and got the “August child” answer. We paid for a private assessment, which in the 90s also didn’t pick any problem. She did get the Alevels she needed, but only with a huge amount of support at home, and we were able to afford a tutor for the “30 children in the class” subject, which she has always said is the best thing that could have happened.
She went to Art College, and the whole intake was offered assessment for dyslexia, they told her that students with dyslexia often gravitate to art-related subjects as less writing is involved. She told us they did a battery of about 20 tests, and she did fine with all of them except short-term memory, which she was told was part of the dyslexia spectrum. Her assessor told her she was likely to have struggled with subjects such as languages and history, which was spot on. I felt bad because I thought it was just her being lazy. She got a lot of help with IT and could have more time in exams if she needed it, and went on to get good BA and MA degrees. We are proud of her.

We watched and found the programme brave and moving: we also are big Jay Blades fan especially in The Repair Shop.
The programme struck a chord because 2 of our now adult children are dyslexic and so is our 7 year DGD.
As for getting a degree when you are illiterate and or dyslexic: our son got his degree thanks to an amanuensis, provided by the University along with a laptop and some reading aids, all free of charge from the university.

I haven't watched it yet but well done him for turning his life around.

"How did he pass his driving test where you have to read a number plate?
That aside, good for him to 'come out' about it."

Apropos passing the driving test, I volunteered to teach reading to those with such difficulties.
The wife of a HGV driver called me to thank me for my help His reading ability was very limited and she would write out long lists showing the numbers of the roads he should take for his next delivery. This he stuck to the dash board and it seemed to work.
! am not sure that I could teach him much as he seemed to need the problem to secure his wife's attention

The next pupil was a single mother who needed my assistance to apply to the council for whatever she thought she needed..... and she was only interested in new products She was not interested in learning anything

The last was a 23 y.o. good (adequate?looking )male who opened the door to me saying"' and how old are you" I did not think this germane but answered I was, at the time in my late 40s. When I asked him to explain he said that his last reading tutor , of a similar age, had recently walked out on him, leaving him with 3 young children from his previous relationships and he needed help. His response to me was "You will do"
I can only guess what he wanted of me but it was not reading lessons. I turned and complained to the organisation that not one of their illiterates/ dyslexics needed to learn how to read before their underlying psychological problems had been addressed.
I must add that I had been described by other, orthodox students as a brilliant( and qualified) teacher of English both here and abroad

^I just wish they would stop referring to him as a furniture restorer
I first became aware of him when he became famous for painting an Erccol dining chair. He painted one leg a different colour.^
MerylStreep I don’t understand what you mean, Jay is a furniture restorer?
www.jayand.co/

One of my sons is dyslexic and had always struggled with reading fiction but read non-fiction. For his English GCSE l bought him an easy reading version of Great Expectations and my own copy of Lord of the Flies, which I read to him chapter by chapter as he followed the text as best he could in his own book. He also watched film versions of both. In the last few years he has caught up on quite a bit of fiction by listening to Audible. There are ways round things. He is intelligent and this masked the dyslexia when he was small as he was not diagnosed until senior school, where he received extra help.
Hats off to Jay Blades.

I worked in a special school for children with moderate learning difficulties one day a week for many years as a musician. While many of the children could learn to read to some degree, there were always a few who would never learn to read more than a few words. For these children the emphasis was very much on getting them to learn the most important words such as Danger, Private, Keep Out, Keep Off The Grass, Police, Toilets.

I don’t understand what you mean, Jay is a furniture restorer?

Casdon I think Jay Blades is actually an up-cycler rather than a restorer. I have seen him restore furniture but generally he upcycles furniture that is not worth restoring but will look good painted. His trademark is to paint some area in a different colour: either dip one leg on a blue chair in yellow, or paint a brightly coloured flower on a corner of a white table, or something like that. I like some of his stuff but not all.

Haven't seen him do actually craft anything since Money for Nothing. But I did enjoy Jay Blades Yorkshire Warehouse (on I-player, I think).

Just watched this what an inspiration for many others in similar situations. Adage you are never to old to learn

What does it matter what he is called restorer/upcycler/repairer?

Is there some arcane status battle between those in this trade?