Yet the first UK school to specialise in dyslexia, as well as dyspraxia and Asperger’s Syndrome, opened its doors in 1946, when spelling and reading problems were dismissed as ‘word blindness’.
Now one of only 20 special dyslexia schools in the country and with just 90 places on offer, the independent, co-ed Frewen College in Rye, East Sussex — whose four houses are named after celebrated dyslexics Sir Richard Branson, Nigel Kennedy, Sir Steven Redgrave and Jamie Oliver — is both expensive and effective.
‘At an annual £15,500 for a junior day place or £28,000 for a senior boarder, our fees approach those of Eton,’ says business manager Jeremy Field, who adds that half the pupils have their places funded by their Local Education Authority.
‘But the cost needs to be set against the fact that we achieve an average seven GCSE passes per pupil — quite some achievement given the level of disability of some pupils.’
A growing number of senior schools in the independent sector now cater for children with special educational needs. While a minority come in with the so-called ‘statements’ that are a key feature of the state system, but which can be extremely hard to secure, most will have received assessments from private educational psychologists.
At the co-ed Bethany School, in Cranbrook, Kent, which has a dedicated unit for dyslexia, it is the combination of small class sizes and expert teaching support that makes the difference.
‘We are a halfway house between a special school and a mainstream private school and we typify the more enlightened approach to dyslexia you tend to find in the independent sector,’ says headmaster Nick Dorey.
‘If you’re mildly dyslexic with slow reading skills or poor short-term memory, you’ll probably be able to cope in a class of 30 or more in the state system, but you are unlikely to fulfil your potential and may even find school a very distressing and disengaging experience.
‘In a class of 16, on the other hand, you are far more likely to get individual attention tailored to your specific needs. It’s that, plus good pastoral skills, that parents should be looking for.’
Other heads stress the need for parents to be frank about the difficulties that their children may be encountering.
‘Some parents like to think their sons are geniuses, even when it is clear that they struggle with academic work,’ says Barry Huggett, the head of the boys-only More House School in Farnham, Surrey, which specialises in language processing problems including dyslexia and other autistic spectrum disorders.
‘We encourage parents to be critical of their children in the nicest possible way and to be specific about where they need help. In return, we offer a joined-up approach which ensures that all the staff understand pupils’ needs and the good work done by specialist teachers isn’t then undermined by a French master finding fault with homework.’
Case study: language processing
Oliver Stone, 13, was diagnosed as having severe language processing problems when he was in reception class at his local infants school in Guildford, but received no comprehensive help with his speech and language difficulties until his parents moved him to More House School in Farnham, Surrey, when he was 11. His place is part-funded by the local LEA.
‘Getting a statement for my son involved six years of stress and a whole battery of meetings, assessments, profiles and appointments,’ says his mother, Debbie.
‘Although I am sad that he isn’t able to enjoy the independence he’d have enjoyed walking to and from a local school, I believe the state system utterly let him down.
‘At his primary school, he became very depressed at being unable to understand what was going on in the classroom and began to dismiss himself as ‘stupid’. If he had gone to the local comprehensive, he would have sunk without trace.
‘Although it was very stressful to move him into a totally new environment, he was visibly calmer as soon as he got to More House. Just knowing that other kids there also had problems made all the difference to his self-esteem.
‘Like many parents, I naively thought there’d be help out there once it was confirmed that Oliver had these difficulties, but in my experience, both the schools and the LEAs will drag their feet for as long they can. Putting up a really good fight for your child is an absolute necessity in these situations.’
Case study: dyslexia
At the age of seven, Amelia Birrell’s (pictured) Year 2 teacher pronounced her of ‘low ability’ and advised her parents to learn to live with it. A diagnosis of dyslexia and severe glue ear followed and four years later, at age 11, she moved to Bethany School, in Cranbrook, Kent from her local comprehensive in south-east London. Recently, she won a drama scholarship to Colfe’s, a co-ed independent school close to the family home.
‘We always felt that Amelia had a range of talents that needed to be brought out and I am terribly glad that I refused to accept her primary school’s low expectations of her,’ says her mother, Amanda.
‘Bethany gave Amelia the full-time dyslexic support that was woefully lacking at her state school and equipped her with a range of support mechanisms that would allow her to progress with her studies. She entered the school as a very shy little girl but now, at the age of 15, has become a highly confident young woman who loves both acting and directing.
‘Every parent wants to think that their child is a star and I’m grateful to Bethany for transforming a Level 3 at Key Stage 2 (expected level is 4) into a set of good grade predictions at GCSE, but exam results aren’t the whole story.
‘We instinctively knew that Amelia had many talents outside the narrow confines of academic learning, but it took an independent school with a caring attitude to really bring them out.’
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