Empathy is a lifelong virtue that we, as educators, will always try to encourage and expose to the boys entrusted to our care. I, as Principal, tried this last week with the Scotland vs Ireland rugby match only to witness a rampant Ireland demolish a shocked Scottish rugby team. I have learned my lesson! However, I will always try to provide examples to the boys in the Junior school of situations where you must see or experience everyday situations through the eyes of someone else. Therefore imagine again someone experiencing Book Week and everyday activities with the learning difficulty dyslexia.
If I was going to go with research around 65 boys in the Junior school are dyslexic. Each of these children has a different experience in reading, writing and spelling. Some would pick up a book and open up the pages only to be faced with the image above. The specific learning difficulty, dyslexia, affects around 11% of the population. Dyslexia is the term used when people have trouble learning to read, even though they are smart and are motivated to learn. In schools today, it is the most common learning issue. Dyslexia is a life-long condition, however we are all life- long learners and we know that children and adults with dyslexia learn differently.
I encourage all within our Willow Community to watch the following ad from the McDonald's chain in Sweden. Last year, to mark World Dyslexia Awareness Day on October the 4th , all restaurants made the invisible diagnosis of dyslexia visible by simulating this learning difficulty in all of their digital advertisements and digital menus.
Just imagine what that is like every day picking up a book, reading a menu, going food shopping, going to the cinema or any other daily activity that we take for granted. It can be a more challenging for our dyslexic pupils and friends. However, people with dyslexia are highly creative and are well known for problem solving – for example the film director Steven Spielberg is dyslexic along with the late Steve Jobs and artist Pablo Picasso. They also have improved pattern recognition are better at identifying and memorizing complex images and often see the bigger picture the best example being Albert Einstein who was dyslexic.
Therefore in Willow we endeavor to recognise and support the individual talents of all boys within the Junior school by offering a broad, balanced and holistic education both in and outside of the classroom. Our job, as educators, is to offer the right supports and aids so that a boy can learn to manage their dyslexia and become an independent self-sufficient learner and worker.
View the McDonald's Campaign
Note from the Principal:
I would like to single out two fantastic, in my eyes, young men who actually made my day on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Firstly thank you Father Denis Gavin for coming in to the Junior school to present the awards at your annual golf tournament. Once again you made this day special for everyone in the Junior school and on your own birthday – 84 years young! Thank you.
Secondly I would like to thank Mr. Alex Hyland in St. Mark’s Sixth Form for sharing his phenomenal comic Black Spider with me on Wednesday. The detail and drawing contained within this comic was exceptional – and it only took him 3 hours to complete the story, drawing and colouring in. Astounding! Alex like all of the boys in the Junior school please do not waste this God-given talent that you have. Well done!
