Shakespeare?
To be or not to be?
Well surely it’s a NO,
a NO to Shakespeare for children
as that’s what they are,
a child.
Let us not expose them to
such horrors
of murder,
cruel revenge and suicide.
This is not the way to solve problems,
this is not the way to behave.
This is not what should be taught to
our impressionable teenagers today.
Along with war,
power and conflict,
poetry most disturbing.
Surely there is so much
more we could do without the need to
constantly be referring to
death and destruction,
the only way out,
suicide normalised and accepted.
Please give our children
the chance to learn poetry
that is positive and affirming.
The chance to explore
light-hearted works,
be creative and enjoy learning.
English language exams rely quite heavily on reading between the lines and analysing text to within an inch of its life. Both inference and analysis can be very difficult for a child with dyslexia to comprehend. Children with dyslexia as we know have weak processing skills and slow processing skills in addition to a poor short-term memory. So, this type of work can prove very challenging for them. Very challenging; especially when needing to complete tasks within a time limit as we know to work at pace adds yet more pressure.
There is however some relief in the creative writing element of one of the language papers as this can be good for a child with dyslexia. If they know how to get started on a piece of written work and are not bogged down by making errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar. They can be creative and write using their vivid imaginations. They are given the chance to write from their heart.
Exam access arrangements are in full swing today. There is opportunity given to schools to apply for extra time for those children with extra need. Extra need may fall into a section under a diagnosed specific learning difficulty or a medical need amongst others. It can often be a case of having an extra 25% time in an exam or having a rest break, time away from the situation. It may be to have a reader, a trained person to read aloud the exam questions to the child. It may also be someone to write the child’s answers.
In addition to these arrangements, those children with dyslexia should be ‘sympathetically marked.’ 5% of the total marks for English GCSE’s are concerned with spelling, punctuation and grammar. Yes of course, a child must try their best but with a diagnosis of dyslexia or another specific learning difficulty the marking decisions for complete accuracy must be made sympathetically.
I would however, much prefer to see a return to some teacher assessment and the gathering of work done during the child’s schooling as a way of showing progression and attainment over a number of years not purely what they can remember and regurgitate in a two-hour slot.
The years crawled passed and I was just the bad, in trouble girl throughout all my painful years in that school. But it did not last forever. The day could not come quickly enough when I actually left that school and indeed left school for good, or so I thought, more of that later. I burned a lot of my workbooks in the back garden. Burned away those nasty comments, the SP in all the margins, the ’see me’ comment written again and again at the bottom of so many pieces of my work written in indelible red ink, which could never be erased.
I burned them all. It took a while but yes, it felt good, the material tangible items had gone, literally up in smoke and were now ashes in the soil. How much harder though to burn away the cruel memories etched in the mind? My C.S.E results came that Summer and I think I got some level fours, whatever they were! After over ten years in education, I had literally nothing to show for it apart from a few C.S.E’s and knowing how to make a basic white sauce in Home Economics, get me, what a result, good to know there were no wasted years there then!
Even when in trouble time and time again in secondary school no teacher could deal with me. When I told the vice principle that the disgusting French teacher was ‘difficult to get on with’, ’he replied, ‘so are you girl, so are you!’ There was never the opportunity to say why I found him and all my other teachers so difficult. No, I was just in deep trouble always with nothing getting sent back to my parents. I stood there with another girl, also in trouble in the same class. She stood and cried, I stood and answered back.
My tears when I was a younger child had long since dried up. This was now a show of defiance, a show of strength and me saying, ‘No you cannot treat me this way anymore, I have put up with it for far too long and it is now my turn to fight back.’ So, during all the times I was in trouble I never cried, I could not give anyone the satisfaction that they had reduced me to that state. I did not want to show weakness and make them think they had won, so no tears fell. Where was the justice where was the fair trail, neither of which were present then, before or since in my years in that place.
I unfortunately had reason to return to that awful school around twenty years ago for a presentation about N.C.S, ‘National Citizen Service’ a bit like The Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Even before I had entered the building, spruced up a lot since my day, I felt my heart racing and my stress level begin to rise.
The presentation was in the hall and immediately on entry I was back doing those horrendous C.S.E’s. My eyes quickly scanned the same drab brown wood, panelling on the walls and floorboards to walk on. The whole hall seemed to be made of wood; it would take just one match…
Looking around the hall I remembered. I sat and failed English just there, sat and failed maths up there on the stage and of course, yes, sat and failed science rather spectacularly over there.
Once the N.C.S presentation was over, I left and made myself physically walk around the inside of the building, willing myself upstairs, my breathing once again gaining speed, there was the English corridor, where I propped myself up against the wall outside the staffroom so often at break times as a punishment for bad behaviour. There was the English room where detention was held, where I broke a chair, not on purpose but by now any form of belief of my actions had long since disappeared from any staff member.
Downstairs again, actually now feeling quite scared as no-one was around, I almost ran past science as an immediate image of frog dissecting shot across my memory, on my way to the sixth form. I also had a flash of the horrific periodic table where you were expected to remember all of the 118, yes 118 elements! These elements very often bore completely no resemblance whatsoever to the actual element they were depicting. Why on earth was Na the symbol for sodium, or K the symbol for potassium, or Pb the symbol for lead? Needless to say, I just never got it and unless I am going to be a contestant on a televised quiz show or teach A level chemistry, I really cannot see me ever needing to know, any of them ever again.
Yes, I went back to school! I unfortunately had to go back to further torture as a I simply had no qualifications and ended up re-living previous trauma in the sixth form. Continuing on my journey through the building and into the sixth form, there was the staircase I ran down, the toilet door I kicked and of course got caught doing so. Oh goodness, just let me out of here.
Once out, I was able to wipe the wet beads of sweat from my hands and calm down a little in time and drive home. Quite scary actually the effect that place of education had on me as I reacted like that nearly forty years later!
Why then do we wonder at the number of children nowadays who are simply refusing to attend school? If I had had any choice in the matter, I would not have gone into any school building. I am amazed actually that I only left school to walk home during the day and skive around half a dozen times. These occasions were never, not ever picked up on, I was never ever spoken to about why I had not been in certain lessons during more than one afternoon. It is actually pretty horrific really that no teachers gave a thought to why I was not there.
So, what next? College loomed and I was eventually given a place on a City and Guilds Foundation course in Community Care. I remain completely convinced to this day that this was largely due to one of the tutors knowing my dad through a church connection. I plodded on through a year, not really enjoying the fact I had to attend to folk in old people’s homes, but I did enjoy the work with children. I scraped though with a pass; merit and distinction, what are they?
I was given a chance to stay at the same college and begin the two-year N.N.E.B National Nursing Examination Board course, on the understanding that I was on trial for the first six months, due to my appalling behaviour in the foundation course the previous year. Some of the tutors I think were the same for both courses and our classrooms were on the same floor so of course my name was already known and of course, in a very negative way.
Yes, my difficult behaviour had not got any better, in some respects it was worse. But the N.N.E.B course was much better than the previous year as I was working with young children. This is something which became increasing more natural and easier for me to do. The teachers were also marginally better, yes let us not get carried away here. They seemed to be quite genuine and caring and I have to say for the first time ever in over twelve years in education, I actually even liked a couple of them!
I do remember one time that I got very cross in a classroom. It was awful really as I actually swore at a teacher. She kept walking back and forth in front of the board I was trying to copy from. I could not see clearly to write down what I needed to and got so frustrated I just shouted out and swore at her to get out of the way.
Copying from the board is still a very challenging area of work for many children with dyslexia. A recommendation I often make for those diagnosed with dyslexia is to print out the work form the board so the child has it right next to them to refer to and copy if needed. This then negates the need for constantly looking up and down at the board, often losing your place. It also helps the learner keep on track. We know that teachers can talk at quite a pace and a child with dyslexia may have a slow writing speed so be constantly losing bits of information. When in secondary school, further education and university there is far more need to work in this way. It can be made more challenging if the teacher continues to talk while children are needing to write, making the task so much harder.
