Set up day of BETT
10 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in BDA, BDA Events
Well its that time of January already. 11th -14th is the BETT show and BDA is here on stand SN03. This is the last year at Olympia and it going to be one of the best.
Myself Chris Hossasck and Alan Turner from Leicester DA have set up the stand. When we got there we found the new stand and it looked very good. The first surprise was that the pillar that we have been told a number of times would be on your stand. Was in fact Had on the stand next door and hidded from us.
I got a bit worried as not all the boxes were there , well the courier had to go and sign in at Earls Court so a 30 minutes drop off took 2 hours.
Then there was the carpet, but I can not fault the team that set these shows up. Every problem was solved in good time .
We are now all set up, the stand is looking good so I hope to see you at the show come and see us on stand SN03
All the best
Arran Smith
All we want is a fair education for all
09 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in BDA, Dyslexia help, Get Involved
When you work in any job for a while you start recognising patterns in the work you do. You can identify certain people who have a certain query and it will almost certainly be similar to another that you’ve had before. When I worked in the British Dyslexia Association’s helpline my experience there was no different. I would frequently get calls that ran a very familiar pattern. It would be from someone who was older than me, the age varied from anywhere around thirty to people in their seventies, usually they were in employment. The person would tell me about trouble that they were having in their work caused by their dyslexia and asking for help. The conversation would always come back to the same thing “Oh no, people didn’t know about dyslexia when I was in school”.
The thing that made me sad about these helpline calls was that it isn’t just people in their thirties and over who went to schools where their teachers knew nothing about dyslexia. One of the other types of call I would get would be from parents who have kids in schools now. These parents would tell me as well that their child’s teachers knew nothing about dyslexia.
It seems that little has changed. There is more awareness now of dyslexia in schools but, and this may surprise you to read, there is still no mandatory training about dyslexia for people training to be teachers.
Yes, you can still become a teacher without having learnt about dyslexia at all, and even if you do it might be just one afternoon on all disabilities. Dyslexia is estimated to affect around 10% of the population, and that doesn’t count the related conditions of ADHD, Asperger’s, Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia and so on. And yet teachers can get into a school knowing nothing about these conditions or how to teach these children.
At the British Dyslexia Association we think that this is unacceptable and it has been a goal of the British Dyslexia Association to make education about dyslexia a mandatory part of Initial Teacher Training since the BDA began. Now we finally have the chance to put this in place. We have started a government run petition asking the government to change Initial Teacher Training to include this teaching. The government agreement is that if petitions on their website reach 100,000 signatures then they will debate the issue in the House of Commons.
100,000 is a tall order but we believe that it is an achievable one. As such we urge you to sign our petition and to publicise it as much as possible to whomever you think may be interested. There are features on the website to tweet about the petition on Twitter, to put it on your Facebook and LinkedIn page. You can also write to your local newspaper about the petition, talk to your MP, tweet to your favourite celebrities about it. The more people that see the petition and sign it the closer we get to changing things.
Hopefully then in a few years we’ll start getting a new type of call to our helpline, calls that say “Oh yes, they knew about dyslexia when I was at school.”
To sign and share the petition please click on the following link: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20674
Liz Woodley
Moodle and Training Administrator
Former BDA Music Committee Chair wins Classic FM Award
15 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in BDA, Get Involved
Sheila Oglethorpe, former Chair of the British Dyslexia Association Music Committee, was awarded the Special Education Needs Music Teacher of the Year at the Classic FM Awards, held at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this month.
All of us at the B.D.A. are absolutely thrilled and delighted for Sheila and congratulate her on her award. Sheila has long been a great champion of supporting people through music, her hard work will now forever be symbolised with this award.
Sheila Oglethorpe studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has taught class music as well as piano, cello and singing, the latter both privately and in schools. Sheila is the dyslexia/music consultant at Salisbury Cathedral School and is the author of the book “Instrumental Music for Dyslexics: A Teaching Handbook (Whurr). Sheila is also guest lecturer on the Associated Board’s Certificate of Teaching course.
Sheila was selected for a Classic FM award for Special Educational Needs (SEN) “Music Teacher of the Year”, which she was presented with on Wednesday 8th November 2011 at a schools prom at the Royal Albert Hall. The inscription on the award read;
“To Sheila on your retirement as Chair of the British Dyslexia Association Music Committee, with many grateful thanks for your pioneering contributions to music and dyslexia”.
Sheila was interviewed by Classic FM after receiving her award. A video of which can be seen here. http://vimeo.com/31803961
Dyslexia Awareness Week 2011
31 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in BDA, BDA Events, Dyslexia Awareness Week, Fundraising, Get Involved
Dyslexia Awareness Week 2011 has arrived. As the name implies, this week is all about raising awareness of dyslexia. Around 1 in 10 people in the UK are dyslexic. It can take many forms but it never has to be a barrier, many of the most creative and succesful people are dyslexic. This is the week to celebrate dyslexia.
But it’s not just talking about dyslexia, it’s about having fun too.
So, what’s on near you?
There are many events during Dyslexia Awareness Week. Through lots of hard work and dedication, often by volunteers or on shoestring budgets, Dyslexia Awareness Week showcases dyslexic talent of all ages in many guises.
The British Dyslexia Association is organising two events during the week, an Exhibition and Competition Awards Evening and the Strictly Spellbound Ball. The Exhibition and Competition Evening will showcase dyslexic talent in writing, art and inventing for all ages. Having received a wide range of entries from all ages, the evening will be a chance for people to see the works displayed. Prizes will also be presented to the best entries, as decided by our panel of expert judges. The Strictly Spellbound Ball will be a chance for all the hardworking people who support dyslexics on a daily basis to be rewarded. Whether it’s volunteers, family members or teachers, all will be there to have a fun evening of fine food and dancing.
Organsied by msft, the DYS-PLA festival celebrates dyslexic story makers as part of National Dyslexic Awareness Week in November. The festival was born as an exploration of the differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic writers. Now in its sixth year, the festival continues to go from strength to strength.
‘Positively Dyslexic’ is an event organised by the Adult Dyslexia Centre in Maidenhead. The even will consist of an exhibition of creative work ranging from writing to art work to 3 dimensional surprises. There are many more events going on, check out our website for more details on events and how to get involved.
Organising an event? Contact Dominic on dominicl@bdadyslexia.org.uk with details of the event or put them in the comments section below.
Dyslexia Awareness Week 2011 Fundraising Campaign
Each year, the British Dyslexia Association’s Helpline handles around 12,500 calls from people needing help with a wide range of problems. From parents worried about their children, to adults having difficulties at work the Helpline staff deal with all their queries, concerns and questions. This service is predominantly run by a band of very willing volunteers.
The Helpline was supported by a Government grant. This ran out earlier this year, leaving the B.D.A. with the responsibility of running it. The B.D.A. also supports a number of projects up and down the country, helping young people with dyslexia. The Children Will Shine project works with teaching assistant (TAs) specialist teachers, and parents, to set up local groups in order to support dyslexics within their geographic area. Over the next five years, this project aims to assist about 45,000 dyslexic children over the country.
This year for Dyslexia Awareness Week, the British Dyslexia Association is launching its JustTextGiving campaign. In order for these projects to continue supporting people, we need your help. You can text a donation of as little as £1 simply by texting BDAF11 and your amount to 70070. You can donate either £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10.
Example: Text ‘BDAF11 £2′ to 70070 to donate £2.
All the proceeds will go to the British Dyslexia Association. All it will cost you is the cost of a single text.
Amy’s First Blog
16 Feb 2011 1 Comment
in BDA, BDA Events
“I have been working for the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) for two months now and I am really excited about our next conference that will take place next week on the 24th February 2011.
It is only the second one held by the BDA of this kind. ‘Music Teaching and Dyslexia: Practical Insights’. Personally I am someone who would have loved to learn to play an instrument (I still plan to learn one!) but I never really managed to learn to read music. I find it very exciting that some techniques may exist to make playing an instrument a possibility for all individuals.
I am really excited about supporting the event on the day. There are some well recognised speakers in this specialist field at this event. I imagine this day would be very useful for music students with an interest in Dyslexia or those who are involved in teaching music to individuals who have or may have Dyslexia.
Please visit our website if you would like to book a place at this exciting event. http://bit.ly/gJH8Du were you can book online http://bit.ly/gWTvgm
I look forward to keeping you up to date with the latest training events and conferences available through the BDA charity”
Amy Straughan
BETT 2011 The first day
12 Jan 2011 1 Comment
Our first day at BETT 2011 has been a good one with a large number of people coming to the stand (SN2). A majority of foreign visitors today; this is good that they are interested in Dyslexia and want to spread the word “DYSLEXIA”.
I did venture off our stand; went to some interesting ones, the best one today I found was Promethean where they had Bloodhound SSC simulation. I did a miserable 900 mph, need to be 1000+ mph!! I will try again tomorrow.
If you come to BETT 2011 come and see us at Stand SN2 and get our BDA Wrist Bands “Positive About Dyslexia” or order on line http://bit.ly/ecMZR7
See you tomorrow
Arran
Happy New Year from the BDA
06 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
in BDA, BDA Events
What a good year 2010 was for us.
The BDA had its first Music Conference which was a brilliant success thanks to the good work of the Music Committee, so much so that this year we are holding a Music Event on the 24th Feb, find more http://bit.ly/gJH8Du about Music Teaching and Dyslexia: Practical Insights you can book online now. http://bit.ly/gWTvgm
The BDA does 4 main exhibitions each year, BETT which is the largest education technology exhibition in the UK, it’s in London during January, The Education Show at the NEC in Birmingham in March, Education North in Manchester in April, and SEN London in October. We have good fun at these events, talking to teachers TAs and parents about dyslexia and what the BDA does. I’ll be at BETT next week with some other staff and volunteers where I’ll be tweeting and blogging about the event, about what I see and hear and generally what’s going on. Come and see us at BETT in London next week stand SN2.
What else happened in 2010?
We had a number of projects going on in 2010. I came on board as the project officer for our Children Will Shine Project, when the project started in June. Children Will Shine aims to offer after school support for dyslexic children in London and Manchester, to find out more contact me http://bit.ly/fjJlFD
November was a busy month, it was Dyslexia Awareness Week 1 -6, and we had 3 events within 5 days. An employers conference with an Art Exhibition during the evening at Shell HQ in London, (we were there special charity for the year), and a few days later we had an excellent Education Conference that went down really well with over 250 delegates. Prof Maggie Snowling and Prof Angela Fawcett spoke as well as Dr Joel Talcott. They are all leaders in their fields
In November the BDA announced Dr. Kate Saunders as the new CEO. It was a really busy month with Dr Kate and Margaret Malpas (half of the joint BDA Chair) Speaking to over 200 teachers and over 200 parents at an event in Wiltshire.
2011
Come along and see us at BETT with Kate Saunders taking the Friday afternoon seminar.
The big event of the year will be the BDA International Conference in June. This will the 8th International Conference and is being chaired by Dr Joel Talcott from Aston Uni. Find out more http://bit.ly/g6CfTB
Keep up to date with what’s going sign up to are newsletter , RSS are Blog, or Follow Us on Twitter and become a friend on facebook.
Hope to see you at one of our events
All the best for a happy and healthy 2011
The BDA Team
Children Will Shine
09 Sep 2010 2 Comments
in BDA, BDA Events, Get Involved
One of my many jobs within the British dyslexia Association is managing the project called children will shine. This project is to set up after school workshops in Manchester and London to offer lessons to dyslexic children. The project will work with teachers, teaching assistants and parents, offering support to dyslexic children to give them skills to reach their potential. For more information please email me arrans@bdadyslexia.org.uk
This week I have also found some new apps for my iPhone. My last blog was about DragonDictate’. The first one I found is called “my homework” this is a free app. It basically is a homework diary I’m not too sure if it can go on iPod touch this is a cool app four dyslexics. No more worrying about writing in their homework diary or being embarrassed by asking a teacher to do it. When I was at school I had a friend to write in my homework diary. She actually got “yellow slips” for this they were a reward at my school. The next App that I found is call “web reader”. It is not free £1.19. you use it your web browser on your iPhone and it will read the pages to you. My final App that I really like is called “audioboo”. if you go to audioboo.fm you can read more about it is basically audio blogging. This means dyslexic people like me don’t really need to type our blogs. We can just dictated into our iPhone or on the computer it links to your twitter account and Facebook account. This would be very useful when we do exhibitions and conferences to keep people updated.
www.audioboo.fm www.audioboo.fm/arrandyslexia
Don’t forget dyslexic awareness week the first week in November. The BDA has three events in this week. A employers conference on 2 November “Seeing It Differently” and that evening an art auction events on the Friday and Saturday an education conference “Dyslexia Explored” to check out the BDA website for more details
http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/courses-and-events/conferences.html
I do like hearing your comments. I listen to them using Claro Read so keep them coming
Take care
Arran Smith , DragonDictate and The BDA
02 Aug 2010 4 Comments
Last Sunday, my fiancé Lucy, told me that she had downloaded DragonDictate for her iPhone. This is a dictation app witch will be brilliant for dyslexics. I am Arran Smith Membership and Project Officer the British dyslexia Association. To get DragonDictate for the iPhone All you need to do is download from the app store on your iPhone / itouch / iPad I’m now dictating not only on my laptop but also on my iPhone. It’s not the best yet, but it works well for small dictation. It means that now dyslexics can text without typing, send e-mails on the iPhone, and connect it to twitter and Facebook. All you do is tap to dictate and start talking.
As the Membership and Project Officer of the British Dyslexia Association, I’m running a project called Children will Shine, but more about that in my next blog. Here are some brief insights from the past five weeks
I started at the BDA at the end of June after leaving a National retail job. I feel very passionate because I want every dyslexic to reach their potential.
The first day after leaving my last job, I’m in Leicester at Leicester City Council’s dyslexia friendly schools conference with over a hundred teachers from the City of Leicester. I attended the event at Leicester University chaired by my friend and Chairman of the Leicestershire Dyslexic Association Chris Hossack, he was assisted by Marie Allison Director of Service of the special needs teacher team the key note was from Rachel ingham who is a specialist in dyslexia friendly school.
BDA Members Day was the next event that was fantastic, with the BDA’s Chief Education Officer Dr Kate Saunders as the keynote speaker followed by Edward Vickerman who won the Newly Qualified Teacher Award 2009, and Louis Barnett BDA Ambassador and founder of ‘Chokolit’ chocolate. It was a great experience for all the family and was a successful first working day for me.
Since then I’ve worked with Intel on their Intel bus , and I’ve been part of a consultation meeting with the local dyslexic Association’s, that was a good platform. I’ve also been with Dr Kate Saunders to a dyslexic friendly school in Swindon, it’s amazing how you can see dyslexic children show you how they learn angles by using their arm. Acute, obtuse, straight and reflex.
I’ll try to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on, but I’m severely dyslexic and as I said and I forget, still
Take care Arran Smith
Join us at Members’ Day…
07 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in BDA, BDA Events, Get Involved, Uncategorized
Hello Everyone,
Our annual Members’ Day is just around the corner now and last minute preparations to make sure that everything goes brilliantly are underway.
We have some great exhibitors including SEN Marketing, Efamol, Lucid, Empowering Learning, Whitespace, Claro and Crick Software . And quite brilliantly, software company Intel will have a great big coach parked outside the venue filled with all sorts of assistive technology products for you to have a play on, including their new Reader.
There will be some really fun workshops for young people held by Louis Barnett, who founded chocolate company Chokolit aged 13, and Edward Vickerman, who was recently awarded the accolade of Newly Qualified Teacher of the Year. There will be chocolate tasting and fun to be had in those sesssions believe me!
For the adults there will be useful workshops on coping with dyslexia and study skills. Plus the winner of this year’s Young Achiever’s Award will be announced! (Remember that snazzy camera I spoke about?)
Dont’ forget if you do want to come it is essential to book your place as we need to account for numbers for lunch/workshops (not forgetting that ol’ chestnut health and safety). You can book your place by calling our office on 0845 251 9003.
It costs just £20 for a family (2 adults and up to 3 children), or £10 for an adult ticket and £5 for a child’s ticket.
I will travelling up from Berkshire on the day (I’ll be up with the sparrows) helping out so come and say hello if you are there. It will be my first members’ day and it looks set to be a good one… well, with chocolate tasting it would be hard pressed not to be!
Hope to see you there!
Rachel
