Wellacre Leads the Way as a Dyslexia-Friendly School

Posted at 2:10 pm on 24th May, 2018

DfE Report Highlights Wellacre’s Dyslexia-Friendly Good Practice

Wellacre is proud to be one of four schools identified and featured in a report highlighting dyslexia-friendly schools and good practice.

Researched by the Faculty of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, and commissioned by the Department of Education, the report includes a detailed case study about effective dyslexia practice at Wellacre.

Dr Dominic Griffiths, Senior Lecturer Inclusive Education and SEN at Manchester Metropolitan University, said:

“It was a real privilege to meet Wellacre staff, parents and pupils and to observe such good practice in action.”

Wellacre achieved the Trafford Dyslexia-Friendly Quality Mark in September 2017 and was the subject of a news broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester.  

The award has not stopped Wellacre’s journey; it continues with leadership vision and dynamic management to maintain the project’s impact.

The case study demonstrates Wellacre’s commitment to achieving a dyslexia-friendly culture with the support of the senior team, dedicated leadership and teacher buy-in.  Furthermore, Wellacre has encouraged parental involvement from the start as well as continuously monitoring the school’s progress. By achieving the quality mark, Wellacre has shown how the school has achieved its clear, strategic goals to provide fully inclusive, quality education for dyslexic students.

The report concludes that Wellacre’s development of dyslexia-friendly practice has not only developed teacher confidence, student confidence and parental satisfaction, it has had a real impact on the school’s academic performance; in last summer’s GCSE, results for students with SEN were much higher than the national average, with 75% of students achieving a Grade 4 or above in English and 80% in Mathematics.

Positive feedback about the impact of the dyslexia-friendly culture at Wellacre was noted from both students and parents, interviewed as part of the research.   Commenting on the dyslexia-friendly teaching, the students said: “It has definitely got better.”

Student Matthew also noted the positive effects of staff dyslexia training:

“I think the teachers, they kind of understand more.”

The parents also expressed positive changes in their children's’ outlook.  One parent said about their son:

“He’s definitely become more confident...he was very shy.  But his teaching assistant and his mentor said that he’s become so much more confident. So he’s been brought on more, so that’s good.”

The published report is now available online via the British Dyslexia Association website.  For the full report, please click here.