Our Greek Day!
The year ended at Chiltern Tutorial with a number of exciting activities.
The week began with a Greek Day.
The children came dressed in tunics and wonderful Grecian clothes.
They prepared a Greek feast and were lucky enough to have Greek weather,
and sat outside under the trees and ate their meal!
Drama: Tom Cruise, Anthony Hopkins, Zoe Wannamaker, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley
Chefs: Marco Pierre White, Jamie Oliver
Entertainers: Eddie Izzard, Ben Elton, Dominic Wood
Media: James Whale, Nicholas Parsons,
Poets: W.B.Yeats, Benjamin Zephaniah
Authors: Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Andersen, Agatha Christie, Esther Freud
Photographer: David Bailey
Filmmakers: Walt Disney, Guy Ritchie
Architect: Lord Richard Rogers
Entrepreneurs: Anita Roddick, Richard Branson, Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA founder)
Politicians: John Prescott, Michael Heseltine, Winston Churchill
Sportsmen: Duncan Goodhew, Jackie Stewart, Steve Redgrave
Engineers: Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison
Physicist: Albert Einstein
Note: We’re not sure where this list came from so if you know the source please let us know.
The last twelve years of running Chiltern Tutorial School has been a sharp learning curve for myself and all the teachers at the school.
Over a hundred children have passed through the school, each child has brought a different personality and learning difference.
Many children possess a kinaesthetic learning style, they have a need to move, squirm, wriggle, touch and fiddle in order to stimulate their listening and learning. Others learn through visual channels, they love colour pictures, cartoons, patterns, television and visualisation. Some will learn through listening, they will often be staring out of a window but will in actual fact be listening. They learn through the medium of story tapes, songs, poems, talking and repetition.
School can be a very painful experience for many children. Continually being asked to perform tasks that are likely to end in failure is extremely demoralising and upsetting. Due to our school system in this country, with children beginning to learn to read at five or six, children learn failure at a very early age. (In many countries the children do not start formal education until they are seven.) In many cases children sometimes arrive at Chiltern physically and emotionally deflated. Within weeks of them being in an environment that understands their differences, they appear more confident, they are happy to have a try and realise that making mistakes is part of the learning experience.
Dyslexic and dyspraxic pupils often possess many attributes and talents that are not always celebrated in an academic school environment. While excelling at drawing, painting, singing, acting, juggling, skiing, Taikwondo, judo, lego, and model making, children often consider themselves worthless because these abilities are not associated with the traditional way that success in school is measured.
Many dyslexic children do not follow the traditional pathways through education. Many do not learn to read until 10, spelling often evolves by 14.
However, it is worth remembering it is not how you start the race, it is how you finish it that matters.
Therefore we need to focus on our dyslexic children’s abilities and to help them follow their learning styles. Providing them with games, talking books, trips and visits, sport and active conversation about topics in a range of subject areas. This will enable them to develop an impressive range of alternative strategies to compensate for any learning differences.
VISIT TO CHILTERN TUTORIAL UNIT
21st MARCH 2002
PENNY COOPER AND VICKI DONALDSON
Report composed by Penny Cooper
This report is produced primarily for my Certificate in Learning Support course, which requires a visit to be made to a Special Needs Unit.
Vicki and I met at College at 10.30 a.m. and set out for the Tutorial Unit (I had done an earlier reccy so I knew exactly where we were going) ) When we arrived it was playtime, both Bruce and Jane Gaudie were on duty and we introduced ourselves. We chatted animatedly whilst playtime progressed and quickly realised what an extraordinary and friendly `team’ we had come to visit. We watched the children enjoying their playtime.
Another member of staff joined us towards the end of playtime and we headed into the ‘classroom’; a separate section of the very, modern local Village Hall, which is welcoming, light and airy, spacious and well laid out with excellent facilities. Partition boards showed the children’s recent work about World War II and which also segregated the ICT area from the main class.
The classroom assistant took a small group of children, Wellingtons and tools in hand, off to make some Easter garden trays. Bruce took small groups of children for some necessary testing whilst Jane sat down with Vicki and I to explain how, the Unit works. This strengthened my feelings, mentioned earlier, about the team spirit, adaptability and open-minded attitudes at the unit. Time is precious for them but they happily gave us theirs……………..
Vicki asked for Bruce and Jane’s views about specialist “Dyslexia” teaching and both agreed that they would not dismiss any useful strategies but felt that there was and would never be just ‘one way’ to deal with dyslexia. Each case of dyslexia is different and therefore it is necessary to produce an individual profile and use the strategies, which work for them, thus enabling them to fulfil their true potential. I would also like it noted that Bruce feels that some theories, which claim to be able to ‘cure’ dyslexia, are very dangerous as they raise false hope – once dyslexic – always dyslexic. However with understanding and varied approaches with strategies much can be achieved!
The children at the Unit are extremely well behaved, very polite and related to the staff in a very positive way. We observed several children happily approach both Bruce and Jane to show them some pieces of work they had completed. They were welcomed and praised and the children were made to feel very proud of their work. A lot of smiles were evident and Vicki and I both felt it was a very positive learning environment. I know, from various sources outside of the Unit, that there have been noticeable improvements in some pupils’ self-esteem, confidence and academic abilities.
Jane and Bruce are to be congratulated on such a high standard of service and level of dedication.
Our thanks to you, your staff and the children for making our visit such, a warm, pleasant and informative experience.