Every St Saviour’s child is wonderful, and every child deserves the very best education!

Did you know?

1. One in five people are dyslexic
2. Four out of five successful dyslexics put dyslexia down as the reason for their success
3. Only 20% of dyslexic children are identified at school
4. Dyslexic learners may have challenges but also have amazing strengths – we like to call these the ‘superpowers’ and 91% of teachers in the UK and USA have no or little understanding of these strengths!
5.  

At St Saviour’s we are changing the narrative around dyslexia and raising the profile. We have been training our staff, identifying our dyslexic learners and adapting our teaching to build on the children’s strengths and supporting them with their challenges.   We are so determined to get this right that we have made it one of our main ‘School Development Objectives’ this year across our two schools.

Over the last year we have; surveyed our staff on dyslexic understanding, trained our teams, analysed our teaching, evaluated our learning environments, understood the thoughts and feelings of our dyslexic learners and made changes so they have the very best opportunities to be brilliant!

So far, we have; invested in dyslexic friendly books (thanks to the PTA), worked with the charity ‘Made By Dyslexia’ to learn and share ideas and developed our teaching based on the research available.

Teachers and staff have; considered the use of ‘thinking time’ for dyslexic children, allowed all day access to supportive materials in the classroom, created clear routines in each classroom to support the children, supported dyslexic learners with ‘big picture’ thinking, used soft coloured backgrounds to support reading from the whiteboards and used technology to support the children.

The big bonus with all this work and these changes is that it supports all learners in our classrooms and not just our dyslexic children.

We recognise the challenges of dyslexic learners but also want to change the narrative and celebrate all our differences, what makes us special and what are all our ‘superpowers’.

But don’t just take our word for it, here’s what some of our dyslexic children think:

‘My teacher knows me really well. I always get enough thinking time to give questions and challenges a go. My writing is really coming along, I have practiced loads and learnt so much.’

‘I love school. The teachers and teaching assistants know how I learn and how to help me, I have resources in the classroom I can access, and the teachers support me and give me the help I need. All the adults and children at St Saviour’s know about dyslexia and I am always happy to share what it’s like to be dyslexic.’

What next, I hear you cry?

We are now developing a strategic plan for dyslexic screening of children in our schools in order to understand which children are dyslexic and what support they might need. We are also planning a parent and carer information event to share everything we have learnt about dyslexia and changes we have made to make sure our dyslexic learners thrive at St Saviour’s!

Watch this space for more information on these next steps!