Bryony's Blog

When I first began teaching fifteen years ago, the school where I worked was not particularly interested in special needs teaching or differentiating between students in a class.  I had a small group of boys that I would take for remedial lessons every week and that was the extent of the help given to them.  Some of these pupils had an educational psychologist's report and were deemed dyslexic, but not much notice was taken by the school - which is not to say that their conditions were ignored, they just weren't given much emphasis and no one was excused from doing anything because of their difficulty. Some educationalists take umbrage at this way of doing things.  The last twenty or so years have seen a considerable change in the way in which learning difficulties are viewed.  Students taking the University of Cambridge's examinations can apply to have a reader (someone who reads the questions out aloud) or a scribe (someone who writes the answers do...

I recently paid a visit to Ndola Public Library, a rather shabby looking establishment on Independence Way (no irony lost there).   I expected to find little in the way of books   - perhaps a few paperbacks in much need of repair, or maybe even no books at all.   I wouldn’t have been surprised if it hadn’t been turned into one of the ubiquitous Internet cafes I see round town, or a cell phone shop, full of beautiful, but blank, shop assistants who’d stare at me in confused amazement if I’d ask where the books were.                   Instead, I entered a place of complete and utter quiet.   The atmosphere was one of studious occupation:   all the tables were taken with people doing research and the shelves were full of books.   A closer look revealed them to all be of the hardback variety with red or brown covers and gold or black lettering on the spines.   I felt as though ...