Last week I had a bit of a road trip up and down the UK. It was one of those weeks where I shouldn’t have been in charge of my own diary; to be fair there are a fair few of those in this life and Mr Dr Ross, with […]
#dyslexia
This year has been my first year of working entirely an indie, doing stuff that I’ve spent the last 15 years or so working towards. I never thought I’d be a work-for-myself bod, but since doing a really cool – and seminal in my little pathway through this life – […]
A few years ago, there was a song that came out and it was hilarious. It brought proper joy to my little Sheffield world and made me giggle a lot: What’s the Meaning of Stonehenge, by Ylvis I’d not ever been to Stonehenge at that point and in all honesty, […]
This evening, I did have one job. It was to put beans and spaghetti hoops into the microwave and not burn them. Heat them to a civilised and edible temperature. Not burn them or make them incinerate our mouths. Well the beans didn’t quite burn and Mr Dr Ross’ mouth […]
I am not a primary school teacher and I don’t think I ever could be. I cannot master the dark arts that they purvey and control to survive. It is SUCH a skilled and nuanced professional track and I do not have the skill set to manage it. I just […]
Trustee: “A trustee is someone with legal control of money or property that is kept or invested for another person, company, or organization”. (Collins, Undated) This happened to me on Saturday just gone. I got made a trustee. I say this in what seems to be a really passive way: […]
The fear exists and is very much in the house. Well, the garden office at this point in time. But the fear is definitely here. A dude. A dyslexia-famous dude had messaged me this morning, via my website. He’s like ‘been on BBC Breakfast’ famous because of a book he […]
This term has been a massive ridiculous mess of ridiculousness and messiness. The year since March has been insane. I saw a thing on Facebook the other day that read: January, February March, COVID, Christmas. It’s not wrong. The year has been pretty pants. And pretty pants is how I’m […]
The gravity of what I do when I work with kiddos hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday. A kiddo I’ve been working with also was always going to be assessed by me this summer, but it ran a little later than we were hoping to start everything off […]
Council for Science and Technology: Rapid Evidence Review on Using Assistive Technology to Support Learners with Specific Learning Difficulties I have been working with the Council for Science and Technology to provide professional expertise alongside structured, systematic review of evidence of how to best support young poeple with specific learning […]
I am going to preface this by saying that it is all based on my own personal opinion, experience and dogmas. I’m not citing research and do not claim to be a guru on the matter. Also, that the ideas in the heading are not mutually exclusive. You can have […]
APPG This time last week, I was in London getting ready to speak at an All Party Parliamentary Group for Dyslexia and Other Specific Learning Difficulties. It was a fantastic event and I really enjoyed my time there talking with policy makers, educators, professionals and those whose lived experiences have […]
This last week has been somewhat bonkers and, if the news is to be believed, the world is doomed and we’re all going to die a slow, painful Brexit-induced death. I am so sick of the ineptitude and sheet petulance of our ‘great’ leaders that I want to talk about […]
This is quite a close-to-the-core kind of post, where things that tie into my professional and academic knowledge to my own experiences of learning and education meet. I grew up in Leamington Spa and went to a really blooming good comprehensive school in Warwick, where I was supported by great […]
In the last two weeks, I have finished working at the school where I have been working for the last four years, been offered a place to undertake specialist dyslexia teacher training, presented some of my PhD work at an international conference in Wales and organised working with a local […]