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Brighton & Hove is a unitary or single tier authority, which means the council is responsible for all local governance functions within the area. This includes functions such as education, social services, libraries, planning, licensing and much more.
Hilary Masters is Head of the Primary Special Facility in the Education section of Brighton & Hove Local Authority and has been a Dyslexia Specialist teacher for ten years within Brighton and Hove Children & Young People's Trust, supporting statemented Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) pupils, at both primary and secondary levels.
Hilary states “Having used Texthelp’s Read&Write software for several years, I was fortunate to be invited to become a Texthelp Certified Trainer. I received expert training from Texthelp who provided resources to enable me to deliver and tailor specific training city-wide, to both primary and secondary schools in Brighton & Hove”.
Read&Write 9 GOLD is Texthelp’s literacy support software designed to help students of all ages who require extra assistance when reading and writing. The software offers support functionality frequently absent in mainstream Microsoft Windows applications. The solution allows users with literacy difficulties the opportunity to work in an inclusive manner alongside their peers and colleagues, and has been proven to raise attainment levels and increase access to the curriculum for all pupils.
Hilary continues “The software has enormous potential, supporting learners from Key Stage 1 through to tertiary education and beyond. However, on a daily basis, the core strength of the software is that it provides our children with instant accessibility to text through speech. Texthelp will read any document, either downloaded from the Internet or created by the child or teacher, thus supporting inclusion and independent learning. It is, therefore, possible for every child to take part in the daily curriculum. As peripatetic teachers, we have found the Texthelp Mobile/USB version of the software invaluable, because of its portability.
Texthelp’s Read&Write will be one of the three software packages installed on the laptops/PCs gained through the Home Access Grant. Those of us, who are specialist teachers, who now have the benefit of being certified Texthelp trainers, are excited about the pending roll out of this prospective, highly valuable government initiative and look forward to its potential development in Brighton & Hove”.
Texthelp software was recently chosen to support special educational needs in Becta’s Home Access contract. Becta, the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning, has just awarded a contract to Insight Direct (UK) to provide assistive technologies on all its Home Access packages when the scheme goes national later this year. Home Access is a government programme managed by Becta, which aims to ensure that more children in state-maintained education in England have access to technology at home to support learning.
Texthelp’s Read&Write Home Access Version has been chosen as the leading assistive technology software solution to support the needs of learners who have reading and writing difficulties.
The Read&Write Home Access Solution provides children and families with access tools such as text-to-speech, a phonetic talking spell checker, homophone support, a talking dictionary, and output to a sound file. The software will provide much independence and support in the Home environment.
For further information on Read&Write, please contact Elaine on Tel: 028 9442 8105, email elaine@texthelp.com or visit our website www.texthelp.com
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