This need then to play catch up is actually quite exhausting for a child with dyslexia and can result in burnout, poor behaviour or in more severe cases, a flat refusal to work or even to attend school. The difficulties here are very real and should not be overlooked or underestimated. They should not be put down to a lack of intelligence or pure bad behaviour.
Early intervention is key and the opportunities here should be given to all those who need it but particularly the child with dyslexia. This then gives them a chance to at least catch up with the rest of the class and be on a level playing field with their learning. I do not think this is asking too much.
If these gaps of learning are not allowed to be filled the child with dyslexia stores up many misconceptions as many concepts can be hard to master. It is a little like picking up bad habits, say when driving a car. These can be hard to unlearn and why should a child with dyslexia be needing to unlearn errors or misconceptions due to the fact they have not had the correct teaching in the first place, they are surely not the ones at fault here.
There are spelling rules to learn instead of sight word recognition. Reading techniques not being taken in rather than the use of assistive technologies allowing for accessible reading. Everyone having to write in exactly the same way rather than be creative and have free flowing thoughts. This stifling of creativity needs to stop and the creative developmental aspects of our children needs desperately to be allowed to develop and flourish once again.
Where has creativity gone and where have the arts gone from our schools? The joy of learning a musical instrument, the pleasure to be gained from singing in the school choir or performing on a stage. These areas give opportunity for success without the need to hold a pencil. I remember being in my primary school choir and actually feeling happy. Was it happiness that I got to come out of lessons? Yes, it was that, but it was also much more than that.
Singing gave me a sense of freedom, a chance to feel some happiness in an otherwise miserable day. A day of laborious and tedious work which was delivered in a far too challenging way for me to access. It was then measured by what came out of my pencil rather than what came out of my mouth. I still remember some of the songs we sang in the choir, ‘Jamaica farewell’, ‘Fox went out on a chilly night’ to name just two. The school choir use to perform in other schools which I loved. This chance to escape from my own school and the chance to achieve, even to excel in something other than the strict academic work needs to be available for all children once again. Children are forcibly straightjacketed into being something they clearly are not. Sadly, after time this straight jacketing just becomes accepted, it becomes tighter bound around a child, it has become the norm and it is just not right.
I even performed on stage at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester in a musical piece by Benjamin Britten. I think it may have been something to do with Noah as there were animals involved; children dressed in costume. I do not think it was the Carnival of the Animals as that was not written by Britten. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it and seemingly had no nerves at that time in going on stage in front of possibly 5000 people as that is the maximum it can hold.
So, back to me at primary school. I somehow survived those early painful days and as soon as the brand-new primary school opened in the village, a few months later, I was finally able to leave that foreboding place, which is now the village hall. It has been a tearoom in the past but I never visited, fearing a bout of nausea if I tried to eat or drink anything in that building.
But actually, the effect of those days, weeks, months and years in school and the myriads of varied traumatic experiences has never really left me. I would surely not be writing this book if my memories had simply paled into insignificant happy times, just seemingly like everyone else’s, within a happy childhood and schooling experience.
The new primary school, it has to be said was a complete breath of fresh air in that it was clean and seemed to shine in its newness. It had green grass to play on and extended out as far as the eye could see, beyond the school playing field with green fields attached at two sides. Sadly now of course they have been completely built on with far too many houses. But at the time, those areas of lush green grass, daisies, buttercups and three leafed clovers, I never did find a four leaf; proved to be somewhere I could breathe. The school field was somewhere I could escape to at playtimes and lunchtimes. I could even escape when in class if I was finding something challenging or I was unable to concentrate on anything for the expected length of time by looking through the window and I felt I could gain some short respite if my chair was positioned just within sight of a pane of glass.
They did have what I thought to be a range of amazing amenities in the new school though. They actually had inside toilets with those little white bars of soap. We will not however, go as far as to discuss the use of sheets of tracing paper instead of soft toilet paper, there is a limit! There was though, a sense of great space and airiness that was completely refreshing and almost inviting. Although sadly that initial feeling of almost happiness, yes almost, quickly and very defiantly began to diminish and died a complete death.
The reception class, now known as the foundation stage class, was still being completed when I began so I was put, along with the cohort of 1970 into what would now be, a year one class for those children aged 5 or 6 years old. I actually remember now feeling disappointed at needing to start school in this classroom in the main corridor. Having looked round the reception area which was lovely, open and I am pretty sure it was split level which seemed so exciting. There was an activity area with tiled floor instead of carpet. There I would later do painting and I distinctly remember making egg and cress sandwiches, which were a favourite before I decided to no longer eat eggs almost a year ago. There were also areas for playing with a lot of different construction toys, these seemed to be very popular. There were Octons, transparent coloured discs shaped into an octogen which could be fixed together, stickle bricks which were very easy to work with and PlayPlax, yet more transparent plastic, this time with short cylinders that could be fixed to make towers.
My initial classroom then was the year one classroom. The room was semi-open plan as there were no doors to the classrooms, just three walls that joined out onto the main corridor, I immediately thought, ‘there’s my escape route’, should I need it, out into the safety of the corridor. I loved that corridor. I loved it maybe as it did hold a means of escape for me, but also as it was dotted intermediately with areas offering different activities.
I remember a reading area and I specifically remember doing reading tests there. I can actually see myself now. Possibly 7 or 8 years old, sitting opposite the teacher on a small table while still being able to see the class I had just escaped from.
Other areas included activities to do with art, science, history etc. I think if school were engaged in doing a specific topic, there would be a display with interactive activities for children to take part in in each of these areas which lined the corridor. I wonder if the school is still set up in the same way. It was such a great idea, interactive and an offering of something different, muti-sensory and again with no need to formally record with writing. It also continued the learning journey beyond the classroom and the opportunity to do this must surely not be missed.
The new primary school also had after school clubs, something which was a completely new concept for me. The clubs were largely art or sport and as I played netball, just because I was tall and enjoyed art, I did actually stay after school. It was largely because the clubs were either held outside or in the art area. This area was technically outside school in a sort of conservatory affair spanning about a third of the front of school building. This way I did not feel like I was actually still at school. I remember joining pretty much every club going. In art we made things out of sponge, yes really, as well as doing some marbling and more general painting. So, these clubs were in addition to my commitments with sport and the school choir and my piano lessons at home. So I was a busy young girl.
Primary school
Building brand new,
a breath of fresh air,
a place in which to learn.
Well that was the theory
and could have worked
if the teachers were not so stern.
I did enjoy some days there,
playing outside,
singing in choir and assembly.
But oh those teachers,
how I did feel
that they really
all had it in for me .
I enjoyed after school clubs
of spart and art,
riding my bike
round the playground,
giving out hymn books
as we were now the oldest,
ringing the school bell,
end of break or lunch and
being a server at the lunch table.
Bringing the teachers
cup and saucer back in from outside,
such a treat.
Playing with games on the last day of term,
Kerplunk, mousetrap, frustration,
Ludo, Sorry, Mastermind
or colouring
all were pleasurable and times of relaxation.
