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.