British Dyslexia Association Roadshow visits Kingston

Another Saturday has passed so it's been another free BDA Parents' Roadshow. This week at Kingston. It's always a pleasure to be working with BDA friends, John Hicks and SEN Legal along with support from St David's College.

These Roadshows are a vital piece of British Dyslexia Association work, as they enable us to reach out directly into communities and share accurate information about dyslexia. We explain to parents how they can access the support that their children are entitled to in education and what they can do to support their children at home.

Sadly though, the consistent stories that we hear at these events are deeply disturbing with parents struggling to access any support for their children and having to take on, what is frequently, a David versus Goliath struggle.

We totally understand that the education system is lacking funding, we hear daily from teachers who want to support dyslexic learners but who don't have the means to do so. Yet children continue to go unidentified and unsupported. With 80 percent of dyslexic children leaving school without a diagnosis and in the region of £100 million being spent on all parties fighting in tribunals surely there has to be a better way? The loss of human potential and broader cost to society here is vast, if these children are unable to access the education system and gain the qualifications they need to maximise their life opportunities.

The British Dyslexia Association recently produced our guide Empowered Parents as a direct result of these Roadshows and the clear need for parents to be able to access the information that they need.

The British Dyslexia Association receives no funding for these activities and the scope of our work is ultimately limited by this. We would dearly love to facilitate more of these events so would welcome any donations or sponsorship that will enable us to expand our Roadshow schedule further in order that we can support parents to support their children and ensure that the potential of every dyslexic child is achieved.