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Promoting Dyslexia Friendliness in East Sussex Schools

Joan Amos

Head Teaching Support Services, East Sussex County Council Joan.Amos@Eastsussexcc.gov.uk

Abstract

The poster will provide a short update on where East Sussex has reached in becoming a Dyslexia Friendly LEA and promoting dyslexia friendly status in our schools.

East Sussex began to work towards being ''dyslexia friendly'' in 1999. A reading of the work carried out in Swansea LEA (Dyslexia Friendly Education - a good practice guide, City and County of Swansea circa 1999, undated), encouraged us to move further forward in this area. There has been a specialist team of teachers working with dyslexic pupils in East Sussex since the 1970s. From 1990, three secondary schools were provided with enhanced special facilities for severely dyslexic pupils but, in common with many other LEAs, it had been reluctant to use the word 'dyslexia' using the term Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) instead. This resulted in many misunderstandings with parents who felt that the authority did not make provision for dyslexic pupils.

Following Swansea's example, a series of stakeholder conferences were held in Spring 2000 with representation from schools, parents, colleagues from the health service, Educational Psychologists, members of the specialist team, from the special facilities and parent partnership. These were followed by focus groups to develop policy and the 'Dyslexia Strategy Group', formed from some of the focus group members, continues to steer developments. The objective was to adapt the model used in Swansea to a larger geographical area and more rural context.

What did we need to do?

The strongest messages were to use the term dyslexia, listen to parents, ensure early identification and intervention and provide a whole range of training for schools and others.

This was taken on board. Training was arranged for schools at three levels:

1. Whole school dyslexia awareness raising sessions
2. Specific training for teachers and Teaching Assistants (TAs) on particular strategies and materials to use in the classroom
3. Specialist teacher training, accredited with local universities and the BDA to begin to meet our target of having a trained teacher (BDA Approved Teacher Status level) in each school or cluster of small schools.

How are we progressing towards these goals?

Dyslexia Awareness training began in 2000 and has taken place in virtually every school in the county including special schools for pupils with EBSD and pupils with global learning difficulties. Each school was provided with a set of book of strategies for teachers and parents to use with dyslexic children at these sessions (copies available on request from above email address). A great deal of training has taken place within schools in terms of follow-up staff meetings, work with individual teachers or departments and training for TAs about the use of specific materials and approaches to be used with dyslexic pupils. We are now running the training for the third cohort of teachers on the specialist (ATS) course. This cohort includes staff from our Traveller Education Team and our Service for Children with Sensory Needs as well as mainstream and special school teachers.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we shall ever meet these goals in full, as some trained teachers move out of the authority, new TAs are being employed on a frequent basis and new schools are being built within the LEA which again need the awareness training sessions. However, we have moved on a very long way in the last four or five years and the results are showing in the form of fewer statements for children with dyslexia in our mainstream schools since the time when the effects of the strategy began to kick in (see table below).

These figures appear to indicate that mainstream schools have felt better able to meet the needs of dyslexic children without the need for a statement and earlier identification as evidenced by the referral pattern to the specialist team (see early identification below) may mean that strategies are put in place to alleviate the problems associated with dyslexia in a more timely and effective way. Questionnaires sent to schools by the specialist team confirm these findings.

What about parents?

Generally speaking, parents seem more confident in what the LEA is able to provide. The pack provided for all schools at the time of the whole school training contained suggestions about how parents can support dyslexic children. The Parent Partnership Officer is a member of the strategy group and able to raise parental concerns in that forum. Sessions are run for parents both to help them understand dyslexia and to help them take a part in developing their child's literacy, organisational and other related skills. Similar sessions are provided for foster carers and staff in local authority children's homes.

Early identification and intervention

When the dyslexia strategy began, the majority of the children referred to the specialist team were in Years 4, 5 & 6. This has changed significantly and now referrals are predominantly in Years 1, 2 & 3. This has been brought about in the following ways:

• Each school received a set of guidelines for the identification and support of dyslexic children at the whole school awareness raising session with specific triggers to be aware of in each Key Stage.
• The specialist teacher courses train teachers to use the Dyslexia Screening and Early Screening Tests and those schools who do not yet have a specialist teacher on the staff ask the specialist team to screen for them.
• Teaching Assistants who often work most closely with these children also learn what signs to look out for and refer their concerns to SENCOs and then on to the specialist team.
• Schools are more aware of parental concerns and will refer children for screening if parents are concerned.

When children are identified early (YR or Y1), the authority encourages them to use the Blitz early intervention strategy to help them establish basic literacy skills at this early stage. The programme has been evaluated and been shown to be effective for the majority of the pupils with whom it has been used. Initially, schools with the poorest intakes as established from baseline and KS1 SATs, were encouraged to use this early intervention programme by its being made available to them free of charge with the appropriate training.

Once children are identified as 'at risk' on the screening tests, then the specialist team carry out a detailed literacy assessment and report with teaching suggestions and strategies to be used both in small group and classroom situations it is to support these suggestions that the school-based TA training is carried out. This is the school based provision for children identified later in KS1 or KS2.

Further Training

We are now looking to formalise and recognise the training that the TAs have attained by running three day courses with a practical component, an observation and a written assignment accredited by the University of Brighton. It includes observation of TAs working with identified pupils by members of the specialist teaching team. In recognition of the different models of TA support in secondary schools, the format of this training for secondary TAs was compiled following the analysis of a questionnaire sent to them and their SENCOs. This revealed the range of support provided by secondary schools and the different ways in which it is organised. Therefore there will be two common days of this course followed by a modular third day, which will be designed to be relevant for those attached to specific departments in the school as well as those attached to individual pupils or working within the special needs department.

'Dyslexia Friendly' Schools

Now that a considerable amount of training has taken place in the county's schools, they are being encouraged to work towards becoming 'dyslexia friendly' in a more formal way once one of the school staff has completed the specialist teacher training. They are encouraged to see this as a process which will need to be constantly revisited rather than a checklist to complete. The process (audit available as a handout) is supported by the teacher from the specialist team allocated to the school concerned and a small number of schools are moving towards this at any one time to enable this support to be provided at a useful level.

Secondary schools are advised to move towards this goal department by department. Certificates will be available once the process has been completed but will need to be updated annually to ensure that staff changes etc have not impacted upon the effectiveness of the supportive environment provided by the school. The work that is currently being carried out by the BDA in terms of formalising the concept of 'dyslexia friendly' schools and a kitemark for this will be taken into account by the steering group as the criteria become clearer following the BDA pilot.

Classroom Observations

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the only way to ensure that training is effective and appropriate strategies are taken on board by schools is through classroom observation and this is becoming increasingly important in the work of the specialist service. This is obviously an effective way for schools to demonstrate that practice is dyslexia friendly and the outcomes of training are evident in the classroom situation.

'Dyslexia friendly' Clusters of schools

A new project just coming into being is to appoint a specialist teaching assistant to work within a cluster of schools to enable them all to become 'dyslexia friendly'. The role will be to work closely with the specialist dyslexia team and then carry out a support and training role for other TAs within the cluster. This initiative is designed to ensure that strategies and appropriate teaching methods translate into the classroom context and will provide peer support for TAs who often supply the front line support for children with severe dyslexic difficulties in most classrooms.

This specialist TA will also be able to ease the transfer into secondary school for particularly anxious dyslexic students as she will work in both sectors and be a face known by children in all the schools of the cluster. It is hoped that this will prove to be reassuring to parents as well as pupils.

The first appointment is about to be made and this new way of working will be evaluated with a view to extending to other clusters of schools across the LEA (the job description and person specification are available for interested colleagues).

New projects

Co-ordination Difficulties

Bearing in mind the spectrum of difficulties in the Dyslexia Plus model and the research relating dyslexic difficulties to the cerebellum and balance (Fawcett AJ, Nicholson RI & Dean P 1996), the specialist team has been working with local Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists to encourage schools to use the Jump Ahead project initially developed in West Sussex. Innovated ways of working such as this helps to address the difficulties caused by the lack of resources such as Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy for school-aged children. The programme is designed to support children with Developmental Co-ordination Difficulties through a structured programme run by TAs. Currently only a half day training session with the follow up support described below is needed to facilitate this programme.

The programme contains assessment tasks for each of its three stages and is clearly set out so that it is easy to follow by schools and for TAs to run with confidence.

Although it has the greatest success when used for children up to the age of seven years, it can also have beneficial effects for some older children with severe co-ordination difficulties. This project is being evaluated and initial feedback from schools and parents shows that there may be benefits that go beyond the improvement of co-ordination skills. There also seems to be improvement in listening skills, concentration, self-esteem and organisational skills, all of which are areas of difficulty for dyslexic pupils.

In order to make the best use of scarce resources, an online forum is in the process of being set up to enable schools to support each other and be supported by the specialist teaching team and the Occupational and Physiotherapists for this project. Already copies of the answers to frequently asked questions and other support are being provided. This support is supplemented by termly support group meetings for the schools involved.

Speech and Language

As there is considerable overlap between Speech and Language Difficulties and Dyslexia (Hatcher and Snowling 2002, BDA 'Dyslexia Plus Conference' 1998?), the specialist teacher service will be extending its expertise to encompass speech, language and communication difficulties as well as dyslexia and liaise regularly with Speech and Language Therapists and other professionals to establish how best to support children, school and parents in this area too.

Visual strategies associated with the support of children with Speech and Language difficulties and on the Autistic Spectrum are valuable additions to any 'dyslexia friendly' inclusive classroom. As part of this initiative, the specialist team has compiled a programme called Bullseye in liaison with Widget software which uses Widget symbols to support children in learning the forty five words on the National Literacy Strategy reception word list (available for purchase. More information from the above email address). This includes sets of books using these words , illustrated by Widget symbols.

Working in this multi-agency, multi-professional and collaborative way is also a feature of the Jump Ahead project above and is in line with the latest Government thinking in terms of Multi-agency working as set out in the Green Paper 'Every Child Matters' (DfES 2003) and 'Removing the Barriers to Achievement' (DfES 2004).

Self-Esteem and recognising Learning Styles

Much work has taken place recently on the importance of identifying and teaching to children's individual learning styles and recognising how they see themselves as learners. With this in mind, the specialist service has started to work with MALS (Burden 2000). This has been found most useful, particularly when the statements are discussed with the children completing it, as often they wish to qualify and explain their answers. Work is taking place in schools to insure that information from this is taken into account in their Individual Education Plans and in classroom practice.

This scale was developed predominantly for children of 9 years and above. Service members have therefore started to work on a simpler form to be used with younger children. Once again it is proving a very effective tool in terms of a vehicle for discussion but further work needs to be done to establish whether it meets children's needs and learning styles as indicated by these means results in better educational progress and sense of well-being.

References

Burden (2000) Myself as a Learner Scale (MALS) NFER Nelson

Fawcett AJ, Nicholson RI & Dean P ( 1996) Impaired performance of children with dyslexia on a range of cerebellar tasks Ann Dyslexia 46 259-83

Hatcher J & Snowling MJ (2002) The phonological representation hypothesis of dyslexia in Reid G and Wearman J (2002) Dyslexia and Literacy- Wiley

Disclaimer: all the abstracts presented here have satisfied the academic committee as appropriate for presentation at an international conference. However, the material reflects the views of the authors, not necessarily those of the academic committee or the BDA. No endorsement of any approach, product or service is intended or implied.

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