Looking Back…Thinking Forward
As the Summer term and, with it, the academic year draw to a close, we take some time to look back on what has been a pivotal year for the charity and also begin to turn our thoughts to what is on the horizon next year.
As you will know, charities stem from a desire to make a difference, to affect change and to have a positive impact. However, the reality of this is never easy - that is often the way though: worthwhile things are often challenging and the ambitions of Teach Us Too are no different.
When asked during a workshop, with education masters students, last term what his dream for the future was, Jonathan shared that it would be for his charity to become unnecessary. The implication of this statement of course, is that every child would be taught literacy, regardless of their educational labels and therefore Teach Us Too would be made redundant! We too look forward to that day.
But, in the meantime, we have been working very hard towards shifting expectations and altering attitudes through our continued work with university education & teaching students, and this year, funding training courses and workshops for teachers and professionals in roles working directly with the pupils we are hoping to positively impact.
We are delighted to have a wonderful & growing group of professional partners whose expertise and experience have afforded us a variety of training courses which are hopefully taking us all down the road of Jonathan’s vision. Over the past year, we are very proud to have fully funded 104 places over four courses aimed at improving literacy education for pupils with significant disabilities, those who use AAC or have complex access needs. We have one more parent/carer workshop on offer before the end of term and then we turn our attention forwards.
September 2022 will see us hit the ground running, with a new course on offer. Creating a Literacy Rich Sensory Curriculum is a collaborative effort between Dr.Sarah Moseley and Marion Stanton of CandLE and would be hugely beneficial to teachers and senior leadership teams in schools who are focusing on improving their literacy offerings for students with complex access needs. Applications for this course are already open so do have a read about it and sign up here.
We are also currently fine tuning further new training around the development of an inclusive reading framework which we are really excited about. If you are interested in finding out more about this please ensure you join our mailing list at the bottom of the page to receive information as soon as it becomes available.
Whatever the summer has in store for you, we hope that it will include diving into the pages of books to transport you to other worlds where possibilities are endless and expectations high!
