Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling.

It’s a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing.

Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn’t affected.

It’s estimated up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a lifelong problem that can present challenges on a daily basis, but support is available to improve reading and writing skills and help those with the problem be successful at school and work.

What are the signs of dyslexia?

Signs of dyslexia usually become apparent when a child starts school and begins to focus more on learning how to read and write.

A person with dyslexia may:

read and write very slowly
confuse the order of letters in words
be confused by letters that look similar and write letters the wrong way round (such as “b” and “d”)
have poor or inconsistent spelling
understand information when told verbally, but have difficulty with information that’s written down
find it hard to carry out a sequence of directions
struggle with planning and organisation

But people with dyslexia often have good skills in other areas, such as creative thinking and problem solving

Recognising signs of dyslexia

At CRC, we screen every child for dyslexic tendencies in Year 3.

Screening tests are used to give an indication of a pupil’s strengths and weaknesses and can help identify the likelihood of them having a specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia.

Screening does not provide a diagnosis (for which a full diagnostic assessment would be required) but can be an accessible way of determining that a child may need additional support.

Please note that at CRC, we are child-led, rather than diagnosis-led. Your child will not require a diagnosis to access support in school for literacy-based difficulties, such as dyslexia!

Support for children with dyslexic tendencies

We are a ‘dyslexia friendly’ school so our classrooms are equipped with reading overlays for any child that benefits as well as using dyslexia friendly fonts and coloured backgrounds.

For children that have dyslexic tendencies, they will also have access to Nessy intervention groups. We have invested a lot of money in the Nessy Platform for the academic year 2024-2025, following a successful trial in the programme in Years 3, 4 and 5 in 2023-2024.

How Nessy Works

Assessment: Students begin by taking the Nessy Challenge to establish their baseline reading and spelling skills. The program then automatically assigns personalised reading and spelling target lessons.
Reporting: Reporting allows teachers to identify areas of instruction monitor student use of the program and progress.
Individualised Approach: Students work independently through a series of lessons with videos, games and worksheets.
Rewards: Students collect Nessy nuggets as a reward for their effort. They can trade their nuggets for games and virtual trophies.

What Nessy packages do we have as a school?

We have invested a lot of money to ensure we have access to all of the Nessy programmes:

For more information on Nessy, please speak to your child’s class teacher.

How to help your child at home

If your child is accessing Nessy in school, they can also access it at home! Please speak to your child’s class teacher for their login.

Dyslexia Club Swansea

Dyslexia Club Swansea are a not-for-profit group run by volunteers offering Dyslexic young people living in Swansea a fun weekly club (term time) and activities (often fully funded) during school holidays and weekends. For more information, please visit their Facebook Page.

For more information, please visit:

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/

Dyslexia Basics