Dear British Dyslexics,

I received details of your charity back in September.
This included some extremely helpful information on the
symptoms and characteristics of dyslexia.

Since that time we have continued to battle with my sons
school to get them to accept that he is dyslexic. We
paid for a private independent assessment at the
Dyslexia Institute and with this assessment managed to
get our Education Authority to carry out a statutory
assessment.

Broadly our son, who is 13 in March and in his second
year at secondary school, has basic literacy skills in
the range of the average 7 to 8 year old. He was bright
enough to get through junior school on a combination of
his wits and the schools lack of understanding and, as
we found out eventually, lack of resources. We were for
ever being told that " He is not by any means the worst
in his year".

Through similar lack of understanding in his first year
of secondary school e.g. numerous detentions, being
shouted at, work torn up in front of class etc. My
son's self esteem went down and down despite our efforts
to support and redress the situation.

Since September 1998 his dislike of school has turned
into a phobia and we have now got the problem of getting
him to attend school at all.

Having arrived at this position the local authority have
carried out the statutory assessment and issued a
proposed statement of special educational needs, the
basis of which is that he should remain at his present
school and receive " up to 10 hours per week of welfare
support".

Whilst this is 9 hours more than he currently receives
we intend to challenge this proposal (as is our right)
as we do not believe that it will address the
psychological motivational aspects of the problem.

His present school numbers over 1200 pupils and is an
extensive complex, very efficiently run, very expansive
attitude e.g. creation this year of 6th form, very well
organised as a business, thriving parent teacher
association etc. However for a child with the
conceptual and literacy capabilities of a 7 to 8 years
old suffering from low self esteem this is totally
'confusing' (my son's words), bewildering, lacking in
any personal approach and not, we believe the right
school for our son to regain his self esteem and start
learning again.

An example of this is that our son attended a
competitive swimming club, trained (through choice) 4 or
5 times per week , was in the 1st squad, swam in County
championships, attended competitive meets all over
southern England, ASA gold standard in two strokes,
silver in all the rest, without question on of the top
three in his age group in our town etc but was not
selected to represent his class in an inter-class school
gala because his tutor would not believe his ability!!
The school has its own pool on site but whilst my son
trained there in earlier years with his club he was too
intimidated to be able to seek info or help to get
involved with swimming at school. Needless to say he
will no longer go near a swimming pool!!!. I've got high
self esteem, so I cannot ever fully experience what it
must be like but from what I've seen I know it must be
Hell!

The purpose of this e-mail is to ask if you have any
information on private schools that have specialist
dyslexic teaching units or employ specialist methods and
or if you know if it is possible to get a local
authority to foot the bill for a private school if they
can be convinced of the need. We live in Dorset so in
practical terms schools should be within Dorset or west
Hampshire.

Do you know of anyone in similar circumstances ?

Regards

L.R.

A list is on its way to you.