Diary of an NQT
DYSPRAXIA DYSPRAXIA
Keep on rockin’ in the free world
AFTER WHAT has been an especially long day, I watching them adapt with confidence to their new
sit down to write this column having just returned environment. I feel strangely proud. Seeing them
home from what has been the highlight of my term; every day has allowed me to get to know their
Shenstock! characters, for better or worse, and I would
The yearly concert put on by our love to look back at this as they’re leaving
excellent music department turned year 11, just to see whether my initial The missing connections
out to be a great success. This year hunches about them were right or not.
saw some excellent performances It’s been surprising for me to have
from our 6th-formers, some “gut- wrapped up the schemes of work that
busting” guitar solos, and last, but six weeks ago rolled onto the floor,
by no means least, the finale by filling enough paper to deforest
Before half-term,
the staff band. I took to the stage, most of the Amazon. It boosts my
guitar in NQT-hand and played confidence to know that I have done SecEd reported
my way out of my first half-term it before and that maybe next half-
in teaching. term I can do it again. Not with all
on research
Whether this half-term has my classes however, oh no. The
gone quickly or slowly I cannot joys of a bottom set GCSE group
decide. It seems to have reached are copious and I could fill numerous
showing that
its climax very quickly, but so much volumes with my thoughts about them.
has happened on the way. All I know A shout out to my poor family as
children with dyspraxia
is that I made it! well, who have had the majority of their
I began the term looking forward to ears deformed by my perennial ranting! It’s often underachieve
a restful October week off; how naïve. true to say though that the support of such
If I can fit all the marking I need to people has helped steady me through the
and struggle to find
complete into the boot of my car to stormy waters of NQT half-term number
bring home, it shall surely keep me one and I thank them. I will pay for your
occupied and away from the demon ear reconstruction surgery, I promise.
employment when they
of daytime television for the full As we closed the show tonight and hit
seven days. That’s not to say I won’t the last few bars of our song, a few of my
leave education. Our article
be taking a well earned break. students shouted “go on Mr Connett” and
My colleagues seem to have forgotten it all dawned on me; I had made it through
was particularly poignant
that I’m new and that this has been my my first half-term, I still had a smile on my
first half-term in teaching, I should surely face, and some of the buggers actually liked
for deputy head Geoff
take that as a compliment? Maybe the real me enough to root for me on stage. Not bad for
compliment however is that the kids don’t a newbie!
see me as the new teacher anymore and I’m
Brookes, whose son David
just part of the furniture now. • Matt Connett is a newly qualified teacher of English
I think in retrospect, the highlight for me has been at Shenfield High, a training school in Brentwood in has dyspraxia. He writes
settling my year 7 form into their new school and Essex. He returns next week.
here about what life is like
Teach it like Torno!
for a dyspraxic child at
secondary school
Don’t Dys Me
YSPRAXIA HAS been described
“MY WRITING is messy, My drawings are too, I school to another she was immediately placed in
don’t like my paintings, I wish I was like YOU.” the bottom group because of her handwriting and it
Tom, aged 10. took no end of meetings with the school to address
Friday afternoons as an eight-year-old. I used to the situation. Now she is at secondary school she is
dread them. Mrs H (I will not say her whole name in the top sets for most subjects. Our fear is that she D
as an impairment or immaturity
in the organisation of movement.
Associated with this there may
be problems with language,
perception and thought. There is
significant disruption to the things
to save any embarrassment) would make me sit in may still suffer if teaching strategies do not cater that a person is trying to do: the brain thinks it, but the
the corner and get me to practise my handwriting. for her. body cannot carry it out. Physical activities are hard to
Meanwhile, the other boys and girls had what was When looking at her books there are various learn and hard to remember.
called “Golden Time”, in which they were allowed to comments about presentation and neatness. Though What appears to happen is that parts of the motor
play in the sandpit, dress up, read and do a this is important, it does not determine a cortex in the brain do not develop properly. This prevents
myriad of other things that were seen as student’s understanding of a subject. In messages from being transmitted efficiently to the body,
a reward for a good week’s work. fact I get extremely frustrated when so dyspraxics have difficulty in planning movement to
When I say “practise” my teachers set targets such as “work achieve a pre-determined idea or purpose.
handwriting, it was more like a on presentation” or “focus on your I know this because my son David has dyspraxia.
weekly ritual of humiliation and handwriting”. The point is that In essence, the dyspraxic child cannot make their
reinforcement of failure. Mrs H however many times you body do what they want it to do quickly enough.
would tell the rest of the class set this as a target, it is not Actions can be carried out, but not instinctively and
that David could not play because going to happen. with little conviction. Connections within the brain are may now perceive something odd and under-
his handwriting was so poor and Teachers and parents appear to be either missing or disrupted. developed and move away from them. They will want
until it improved there would be no need to accept their Our brains can process an enormous amount of to be with those who seem older, not those who seem
“Golden Time” for him. children’s writing as it is. information. They are involved in immense volumes of younger.
I do not recall ever having Golden This is not to say that traffic every day and if messages, like trains, cannot get The move to secondary school represents an
Time while I was in Mrs H’s class. handwriting and speed through straight away then they have to be rerouted. As immediate transition from oldest to youngest with
She was convinced I was lazy and her will never improve, but a result, they take longer to arrive. Any disruption to a a consequent and immediate loss of status. Almost
remedy was to get me to work harder that a greater deal of message might be slight, but it could be sufficient to overnight there might be no-one to play with. Suddenly
and humiliate me in an attempt to patience is needed. Instead, induce a sense of clumsiness and confusion. all their social weaknesses can be exposed. Their failure
shake me out of it. But, as with teachers and others in the I have always felt that the idea of a railway network to keep up with their peers will mark them out as odd,
many others who have dyspraxia, classroom need to work on is a good way of understanding the disability and may and they will be outside the mainstream. They will
I was not lazy, far from it. I just strategies such as printing off prove a useful comparison to share with a dyspraxic rely a great deal upon relationships with their teachers,
could not write as neatly or any work, or making instructions child who is anxiously trying to understand what is and they may have to contend with unkindness and
quickly as the other students as clear as they can be. Moreover, happening to them. bullying.
and no amount of humiliation, self-confidence is a massive factor “There are all these messages whizzing round Dyspraxics may not be sociable with any success
cajoling, rewriting or shouting among dyspraxic learners. Model a task the brain on special tracks and sometimes there is and so will be neither popular nor cool. Their comments
was going to improve it. step-by-step and show learners exactly something blocking the line. So the message goes the in conversation may appear ill-judged. An uncertainty
Dyslexia is now an how it can be achieved. This will help with long way round. It gets there, but it just takes a little in relationships with their peers can mean that they
accepted condition and is much organisation and make homework tasks longer.” are not sure how genuine others are, so isolation and
better understood than it used to easier. It would be wonderful to think that there existed loneliness can be inevitable.
be. Alongside this, teachers and Though I was fortunate enough not to somewhere a cure for dyspraxia. It is frustrating to see What becomes important then is the family and
parents are familiar with many of the have many other teachers like Mrs H, I do a bright and lively mind trapped within a body that will the security of home. This in turn emphasises the
strategies to tackle it. However, I am feel I spent much of my education not being only ever respond at half speed. differences between themselves and their peers, who all
not convinced the same could be said for fully understood and that something was wrong. Sadly, though, there is no cure for dyspraxia. The like to pretend that they want to break away.
dyspraxia and this is why I was delighted Luckily I was good at English and history and condition does not ever go away: if you are born with The dyspraxic child may retreat into their own
with SecEd’s leading article before half- I had a good sense of humour. Drama was a dyspraxia then that is the path that you must follow. We fantasy world, often fuelled by computer games. The
term (Dyspraxic students face uncertain godsend to me and I knew I could make others can ease the journey, but we cannot change it. computer and the games console draw them into
future, issue 228, October 22, 2009). laugh. This was one of the ways that I was able to The early years of the secondary school could a controlled world where they are freed from their
I fully believe the research that 60 per cent of cope with not being good at practical subjects. well be the most difficult for the dyspraxic child. frustrations and where, if you make a mistake, you can
sufferers claim they have not been offered support at Nevertheless, what with the technological The transfer from primary to secondary can plunge just start again. They can take risks and model different
secondary school. I am not blaming teachers for this, advances in education and greater understanding of any child into confusion. The child will recently responses to situations safely. When the real world
but highlighting that this is a condition potentially as conditions like dyslexia and ADHD, it is time to up have been one of the oldest in the primary school, outside is so complex they may just try to avoid it,
debilitating as dyslexia, but without the same level the profile of dyspraxia and to prevent a generation with a certain status. They have been expected to both emotionally and physically. They might develop a
of support. Dyspraxic learners have to work twice of underachievers becoming a reality. Have a great set an example and to help the teachers as trusted skill at these games, but they will have withdrawn into
as hard as other students. Subjects such as PE and week. and responsible learners. Very importantly, they will themselves to do so.
design and technology are a nightmare because many also have been able to mix with the younger pupils Another big issue that begins to emerge is the
students with dyspraxia simply do not possess the • David Torn is professional tutor and an advanced in the school, playing with them in an unthreatening dyspraxic’s relationship with physical exercise. Because
motor skills to achieve highly. skills teacher at St Edward’s Comprehensive School environment. it can prove so problematic, a dyspraxic child might
My own children have been diagnosed with the in Essex. He is the London Secondary School Teacher This is the same for all students, whether they are avoid it completely. The danger is then that they could
condition and I cannot help but feel history repeating of the Year 2007 and is passionate that the purpose of dyspraxic or not. But the effects of growing up place become quite unfit. So it is important that they find an
itself. When my daughter moved from one primary education is to change lives. He returns in two weeks. much greater distance between dyspraxics and their activity with which they are comfortable. Swimming
peers. Friends who once accepted them for what they is a possibility that is worth exploring since the water
8 SecEd • November 5 2009
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