Anna's Experience

Positive Learning Experience.

At the age of six and a half I had a private tutor to make sure I was up to scratch for a new school. She did maths and English with me, I don't remember much about the English except I could read fluently by the time I went to School. The maths was an absolutely joy, she let me progress as fast as I liked, so as I got it more and more, we explored more and more and I got better and better. The result was when I got to school my maths was 4 years ahead of my year group, however my English was a year behind. The feeling of being able to fly with a subject and build on knowledge was great, and she never made me feel bad about my English- it was all so relaxed and non-judgemental.

Negative Learning Experience.
When I moved on to the new school, I was kept back a year because of my English- spelling in particular- and as I progressed up the school I was made to do extra spelling at the beginning of each day. This was carried out by making me go to the front of the class and write the spellings on the board in front of everyone- a humiliating and pointless exercise for a dyslexic. The consequence- despite my discovering a new proof for Pythagorus' theorem at 14- was that I went through school thinking I was lazy and stupid. My way of dealing with it at the time was to put on a brave face and say "it doesn't matter". I found my escape through art, and I still love reading.

Thanks for reading, Anna.