It’s been a testing 18 months for all of our students trying to study during Covid, there have been long periods where students have had to access learning online.
Despite this, it’s wonderful to hear of GCSE successes. It’s always so wonderful to learn of my own students’ achievements.
Around two and half years ago, I started to work with a student approaching year 9. The student had a diagnosis of dyslexia and an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan). One of the student’s outcomes was listed as achieving a reading age of a 10 year old when leaving school. This always concerned me and I raised it a every annual review, as a student requires a reading age of an 11 year old to start accessing a secondary school curriculum.
We started working together using CodeBreakers programme. I introduced the student to CodeBreakers at the beginning, as their level of reading and spelling showed gaps in knowledge within years 1 and 2 of the curriculum. In addition, the student had a great deal of anxiety related to reading and spelling. Overall, reading and spelling skills had begun to impact all subjects.
Throughout our time together, the student has progressed through the CodeBreakers programme, not only have they developed reading and spelling skills, their reading comprehension and writing skills have seen a significant improvement and developed a level of maturity. The student has become a confident young adult, able to communicate with adults very well. The student has grown in independence in both learning and at a day to day level. This young person has even started their own little business during the school holidays. I have no doubt that this individual’s wonderful persona will only add to their career success in the future.
Today, I am over the moon to hear my student has passed 7 GCSEs. They will also be able to enrol at college at a higher level than anticipated.