02/27/2023
I feel that this is a very important message to remind everyone of. I, like many others, live with a specific learning difficulty. That means that I find learning difficult, I don’t learn in the standard way but that DOES NOT mean that learning is impossible for me.
Please don’t give up on the child in school who struggles to read and write. The child who doesn’t reach their end of year targets and tests the teachers abilities to the limit. The child who doesn’t pass their phonics assessment. Don’t give up on the child who, at the age of 11 has the reading and writing age of a 7 year old. The child whose English teachers say, during your last parents evening in secondary school that, from your levels when you first started that they would have been happy if they just managed to teach you the basics. The child who had to sit their English GCSE 3 times before they passed it.
You guessed it. I was that child.
My English teachers, at Alderbrook School, may have thought that they would struggle to teach me more than just the basics but they never once gave up on me. They found the way I learnt and they supported me with my learning. They were so proud of how far I had come in my education in the 5 years I was there. So much so that I received an award for the ‘Most Improved English Student’ in the whole of the borough of Solihull.
They believed in me!
It may take us longer, we will probably test your teaching skills to the limit, you may have to find another way to teach us but please just believe in us because we can learn.