Best ever result in English GCSE for dyslexia school
Pupils at specialist dyslexia school Maple Hayes in Lichfield are celebrating after a successful results day, representing a fantastic turnaround for the vast majority of pupils.
Lichfield’s Maple Hayes Dyslexia School, which is famed for teaching pupils literacy skills through a unique method called the ‘morphological approach’, has transformed the lives of a number of its 18 strong GCSE cohort, many of whom were unable to read or write when joining the school.
They are now celebrating exam success with 100% of pupils achieving seven GCSE’s or more, including English and Maths.
A total of 77% of pupils have 5 or more grades at level four or above.
The success comes after a prolonged period of mock examinations, in order to ensure that the predicted grades were accurate. This was achieved, with no changes to gradings predicted by teaching staff.
Dr Daryl Brown said: “We are incredibly proud of our pupils and the results they have achieved this year, in particularly difficult circumstances.
“In order to secure our grades and make sure our predictions were as accurate as possible, pupils undertook almost triple the number of assessments they would usually.
“This was, of course, stressful, but they all reacted positively and their results are proof of the hard work and commitment they have shown over the years.
Maple Hayes Dyslexia School currently holds an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted rating following an inspection in November 2017.
The morphological approach to teaching the English language uses icons to make a visual link between meaning and spelling instead of dyslexic pupils being taught using phonics and was pioneered by school founder Dr Neville Brown, whose son Dr Daryl Brown is now head teacher.
Alumni have gone on to study at college and university - with some going on to gain PhDs.
Christian Carr, from Rugeley, was the first pupil to receive his results.
He said: “I will be going on to study engineering at Stafford College, it’s a subject that has always interested me.
“I’m very happy with my results, particularly in maths.
“I’ve learned a lot at Maple Hayes, the icon system has really helped me.”