St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School has been awarded the ‘Dyslexia Aware Quality Mark’ in recognition of the work it has done to make the school more dyslexia-friendly.
Project leader Miss Eileen Butler led a number of staff meetings to increase teachers’ understanding of dyslexia and helped to provide practical ideas for teaching and learning along with assemblies, parents’ workshops, meetings with the school’s governors and visits to other schools.
A key feature of the work on dyslexia was the involvement of pupils, with a pupil learning committee set up to audit the provision for pupils and make recommendations.
Headteacher Anita Harrop said: “The input of pupils was crucial to this work. Gaining a better knowledge of the challenges faced by pupils with dyslexia allowed us to improve our provision and make all of our classrooms dyslexia-friendly. There was a whole school commitment to this process and staff are incredibly passionate about it.”
A prime aim of the dyslexia award is to ensure teaching is multi-sensory; something that benefits all children, not just those with dyslexia. At St Vincent’s, where the mission statement is ‘let your light shine’, the teaching is matched to a child’s style of learning.
This year the school will again be taking part in ‘No Pens Wednesday’ on 4th October. This idea supports schools and settings with placing focus on the importance of speaking and listening. Within English lessons children will be taking part in oral storytelling and drama-based activities including hot seating and debating.
In maths, children will have the opportunity to make the subject as practical as possible with some children taking part in creating human bar charts, shape hunts and various other engaging practical ideas.
