Punching holes in the darkness Author: AM Scott In the 19th Century, an evening routine in a European city likely included the diligent lighting of lamps in the streets. Armed with ladders and torches, lamplighters would set about lighting lamps so that flames would burn into the night illuminating the path or passage, expelling darkness…

We all know Tigger. He is the overly exuberant, obliviously happy, irritatingly irresponsible and often trouble-making tiger friend of Winnie the Pooh. Known for his bounce, especially into the ‘personal bubble’ of others, he is characterised as energetic, outgoing, fun-loving and overconfident. He rarely sits still and is always running, climbing, or fidgeting. Tigger makes…

Change is a good thing but it is well known that education embraces change as swiftly as a glacier, moving in a frozen sea, a record breaking slow speeds. Trending in education across the globe are concepts like collaborative learning groups, child-led education, neuro-cognition, brain plasticity, inquiry based learning, project based learning, Socratic method and…

Familiar to experienced gardeners, perhaps those who have an interest in vegetables particularly, is a concept called companion planting. Companion planting involves placing certain vegetables and plants near each other to improve growth for one or both plants. By way of example, rose propagators might plant garlic near rose bushes because garlic repels bugs and…

In our modern day lives, when everything is available anytime online and our panic to provide our children with all that we can afford is driven by smart marketing campaigns and idealistic social media facades, it is easy to think that “a lot” will be solution and “a little” is inadequate. Research and common sense…

Reading and phonics programmes come and go through our school systems in fashionable spurts and this appears to be a universal trend. Some methods seem to deliver excellent results; others don’t elicit any meaningful change to reading competency levels in our learners. Some are popular and well marketed; others are solid and well researched. I’ve…

Author: AM Scott Whilst I didn’t coin the phrase, “shut the duck up” (see Mo Gawdat in Solve for Happy, 2017), it might be among the most pertinent pieces of advice I could pass on to parents walking a journey with their child who experiences learning difficulties, or any other child for that matter. It…

Parents of children, who are presenting differently to their peers or siblings, are often caught in an overwhelming place wherein they are willing to ‘try anything’. Their vulnerability is their instinctive desire to do ‘whatever it takes’ to remedy ‘the problem’ or resolve the difference. They seek school placements; various extramural programmes; medication and/or supplements;…

Advocacy is everything for a learner who experiences Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty ‘hidden’ from sight. This makes the task of getting the help needed in school, university or the work place a perpetual challenge for a student. Teachers and trainers cannot see the disability and might comment on or even direct discipline…

Academics aside, what does it mean to be a school, how does a school fit in a community, and how should we approach all the children in our care? “It takes a village to raise a child”.  In a village, children are born, given to the inhabitants to protect, nurture, guide and develop to their…

One of the most frequent conversations held around dyslexia is the expression of concern and panic by teachers who feel under informed or under qualified to deal with a learner who has dyslexia. Training is good and intervention essential, but every teacher can support these learners and make a difference, without expensive resources and specific…

Sorry, we don’t fix kids is likely to be the strongest message any school, even a remedial school should send out. You see kids aren’t ‘broken’ so they don’t need fixing. Restoration, perhaps, is an entirely different matter. All too often a parent’s journey to placement at a remedial school has included someone very well…