Choosing a school for your Dyslexic child

One of the most common dilemmas parents of dyslexic children face is whether they should be in a mainstream school with a good learning support department or be in a school with specialist focus on dyslexia. Making the right choice is crucial for a child’s overall happiness, which ultimately determines their learning and development. Here are eight questions and answers for why to choose Riverston:

1.?What qualifications do your teaching staff have?

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Your child is taught by specialist staff who have the right qualifications to teach students with specific learning difficulties, such as PG. Cert. SpLD or a Diploma in Teaching Learners with Dyslexia (Level 5 or Level 7 equivalent).

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2.?What is your general teaching approach?

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Dyslexic students need and are provided with a multi-sensory teaching approach, such as the use of simple methods developed to ‘hit all senses’ such as allowing time to get up and move about, providing visual prompts, incorporating audio sound bites or letting children touch something or work with their hands. These help children understand and retain information. The teaching approach is also collaborative to promote active learning and for the students to create their learning strategies and templates that are personal to them.?

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3.?How experienced are your teachers in specialist teaching?

Specialist teachers understand the need to teach one or two new points per lesson, followed by continued revisiting and reinforcing to endorse these points. Dyslexic students often have a reduced working memory capacity and processing needs, and so subject termonilogy wordbanks are created, alognside scaffolded worksheets and activity timelines to help with learning. Students are provided with time to process a question before asking for a response, rather than adopting the standard ‘first hand up’ approach.

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4.?How do you support visual stress?

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Copying from the board causes a delay in a dyslexic students’ ability to process what they have just read and it takes them longer to recreate it on their page. It adds visual stress and the copying-down process can result in very few facts actually being absorbed or retained.?Students are provided with handouts and students with a diagnosis of visual stress, use screen tints, overlays and tinted workbooks to reduce visual overload.?

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5.?Do you allow assistive technology?

It might be that your child works really well on a laptop with some assistive technology programmes which helps them produce better quality written work. We embrace these technologies and use Microsoft 365, and student personal laptops to enable writing tasks.?

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6.?What classroom tools do you use?

Classrooms have reduced distractions and desks are kept clear to prevent overstimulation, clear learning visuals are used, seating plans, and Dyslexia friendly fonts and font size are used throughout resources. Teachers also use screen tints on the interactive whiteboard to support students with visual stress.?

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7.?What is your process of checking access arrangements?

Access arrangement assessments are scheduled for the start of year 11 to ensure that students are provided with extra time and other access tools for examinations. Student handwriting and the ability to communication their ideas through writing is also monitored, and laptops are provided where appropriate.?

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8.?How do you help build self-esteem?

It is important to make sure that dyslexic students feel good about themselves and have an opportunity to shine at school. As they grow in self-confidence, they become more resilient in dealing with the learning challenges they face and take risks in order to learn. This opportunity might be in sport, art, tech or drama and is highly encouraged at Riverston.?