iansyst Ltd announces winners of The Dyslexia-Friendly Best Practice Awards 2008

Feb. 25, 2009 - PRLog -- Launched in celebration of National Dyslexia Awareness Week 2008, the Dyslexia-Friendly Best Practice Awards have been designed to reward innovative methods of awareness raising and exemplar dyslexia-friendly practice in schools.

Winner Suzanne Edwards, Inclusion Manager at Notley Green Primary School, Essex and ‘Special award’ winner Devra Applebaum, Support Teacher from Coedcae School in Llanelli received their coveted awards along with a range of assistive technologies to help further support their students.

Ian Litterick, Executive Chairman at iansyst Ltd and a judge for the awards, comments: “We received many outstanding entries for this year’s awards which is testament to the exemplar work for dyslexia provision in UK schools. Notley Green Primary School’s methods and approaches for staff training were particularly imaginative and insightful and clearly reflected the range of difficulties experienced by many dyslexic pupils on a daily basis. The fact that the staff collectively identified and subsequently implemented a range of strategies, approaches and methodologies to address such difficulties by making their classrooms more dyslexia-friendly is testament to Sue Edward’s clear communication and leadership skills as Inclusion Manager.”

Suzanne Edwards comments: “The thinking behind my school’s strategy for SpLD provision is tiny steps can equal a profound change to the quality of a dyslexic pupil’s learning so awareness amongst the entire school community is imperative. To date, we have not explored the benefits of assistive technology for our pupils, so it is due to this, combined with my commitment and passion to raising awareness of the condition that led me to enter the Dyslexia-Friendly Best Practice Awards 2008. I am delighted to have won this year’s award and am very excited about using the technology supplied by iansyst Ltd in class with my pupils.”

Inclusion Manager at Notley Green Primary School for over five years, winner, Suzanne Edwards has worked not only to further her own knowledge of special educational needs, but also raise awareness amongst all teaching staff. She believes it is incredibly important that every member of teaching staff has an understanding of the impact a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) such as dyslexia can have on a child’s learning experiences and also to be able to identify a dyslexic profile in their pupils. Part of Suzanne’s innovative approach to raising staff awareness involves running a series of PowerPoint presentations whereby she incorporates the Greek language into slides. This very quickly and simply highlights how dyslexic pupils might feel if they were asked to copy information.

‘Special award’ winner Devra Applebaum, Support Teacher at Coedcae School in Llanelli, Wales submitted a compelling entry about the impact assistive technology is having on independent learning at her school. Devra believes it is vital that students with learning disabilities are supported to become more independent learners so they can go on into the Sixth Form and the world of work with the confidence and skills to achieve. She already uses a range of assistive technologies such as text-to-speech, dictation and mind mapping software which have helped immensely to achieve this.

Notley Green Primary School received the latest Toshiba laptop with Microsoft Office (Education) and accompanying specialist software to help further support students in the classroom – the total bundle is worth £1,200 (ex-VAT) and Coedcae School received the latest copy of Texthelp’s Read&Write GOLD. Both schools also received a free consultancy session with one of iansyst’s expert Education Consultants. iansyst’s panel of experts included Ian Litterick, Executive Chairman of iansyst Ltd with over 25 year’s experience of computers to support disabilities, and Sharon Goldie, educational consultant and former SENCO of 22 years.

iansyst Ltd will be calling for entries for the Dyslexia-Friendly Best Practice Awards 2009 from October 2009. To register your interest and to receive an update when the awards are open for entry, please visit www.dyslexic.com/award. Alternatively, please send an email, with your contact details to senco-award@dyslexic.com.

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About iansyst Ltd:
iansyst Ltd provides advice, consultancy services and a wide range of assistive technology solutions, software and hardware, to help people with dyslexia and other disabilities.

iansyst is a registered supplier under the ‘One Stop Shop’ Service Level Agreement to provide equipment and services under the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). This scheme is designed to help students in further and higher education.