Moon Hall Dyslexia Centre
The Moon Hall vision is to give dyslexic children the best of both worlds: the expertise and focus of a specialist school combined with a broad based mainstream education that is "dyslexia friendly" in all its aspects.
We believe that the best educational environment for a dyslexic child is one which adopts a structured learning approach in small classes and where all educational activities are organised in a way that is responsive to the child's needs.
As well as the challenge of learning to read, dyslexic children may also find it difficult to organise themselves (and their belongings!) or to learn maths or express themselves in written language. Additionally it is easy to under-estimate how dyslexia affects what may seem to others to be simple tasks like copying accurately from a book or classroom whiteboard.
People may label such children 'stupid' or 'lazy' when in fact they are highly intelligent and trying incredibly hard. Lack of understanding about dyslexia generally, and how specifically it affects the individual, may result in that child becoming frustrated or even depressed.
When a dyslexic pupil joins us, our first goal is to rebuild confidence and boost self-esteem. Parents are often amazed at how quickly this happens. With confidence restored, we concentrate on developing literacy skills as a child who cannot read is handicapped in every subject.
We do not "jump on bandwagons" but we do make sure we are aware of the latest research findings, reading programmes and developments in the dyslexic world. (Our Founder and Principal, Berry Baker is a former Trustee and a current Honorary Vice President of the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre.)
We adopt what is proven and our specialist staff receive ongoing training in the best of what is new. This, together with their diligence and care, enables the great majority of pupils to make fast and measurable progress.
Reading begins to be a joy and not a chore because our structured, stimulating literacy programmes explicitly teach the sound-symbol system of English. As a result, in our Dyslexia Centre children discover the pleasure of reading books for the first time.
In their 2006 Report Ofsted commented that:
‘The identification and diagnosis of pupils with specific learning difficulties is very detailed and effective’……. ‘The support and teaching of pupils with special educational needs is also good and pupils are making good progress as a consequence.’
