On Wednesday 10 September, Adam Dance, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil presented a ‘Ten Minute Rule Bill’ calling for universal screening in primary schools to help identify children’s needs earlier, alongside better training for teachers.

The Neurodivergence (Screening and Teacher Training) Bill was presented in the House of Commons after Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). MPs will now decide whether it should move forward.

For Adam, who is severely dyslexic and has ADHD, this is a deeply personal campaign.

Dyslexia is a neurological difference and can have a significant impact during education, in the workplace and in everyday life. As each person is unique, so is everyone's experience of dyslexia.

It can have varying impacts, and it can co-occur with other specific learning difficulties. It usually runs in families and is a life-long condition.

It is important to remember that there are positives to thinking differently. Many dyslexic people show strengths in areas such as reasoning and in visual and creative fields.

In October, Rebecca who works with our St Helens TESSA team, recorded a meeting for St Helens to kick off our St Helens Dyslexia awareness week by 'Increasing the Volume' on Dyslexia with a live Teams meeting.

Using her expert analysis about digging down into what Dyslexia really is, early signs and what we can do to benefit the young people in St Helens who who the Dyslexia super power, but also face some day to day challenges being Dyslexic in our classrooms.

The recorded webinar in available opposite.

At Garswood, during Dyslexia Awareness Week, Mrs Myatt our SENCO, led an interactive assembly with the whole school to ensure our children aware about Dyslexia and how it can be a superpower when you know about how best to manage it.

Please see opposite for the video Mrs Myatt used to give a child centred view of Dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills. However, it does not only affect these skills. Dyslexia is actually about information processing. Dyslexic people may have difficulty processing and remembering information they see and hear, which can affect learning and the acquisition of literacy skills. Dyslexia can also impact on other areas such as organisational skills.

Our St Helens Dyslexia awareness week was split into the following topics across the 5 days....

Each day during Dyslexia awareness week these resources were emailed out across education leads across St Helens including....

• Webinars

• Training

• Information sheets

• Presentations

• Video clips

• Web links

• Definitions and information slides.

This is how Dyslexia week was split up in St Helens. Each image represents the content sent out to our educators day by day.

Each has a specific focus and suggestions as to what can be done that day to 'Raise the Volume'