Britain's oldest teacher looks back on his legacy

Dual celebrations are happening for Britain's oldest teacher this month - not only is he marking his 90th birthday, but also the impact he has had on dyslexia education over six decades.

Dr Neville Brown founded Maple Hayes Hall School for Dyslexia in Lichfield, Staffordshire, more than 40 years ago.

Pupils that were once unable to write their names have gone on to get a minimum of seven GCSEs, university degrees, and become high-achieving professionals.

"I see every child still for assessment before they come here, before they do their week in a class," Dr Brown said.

"The parents are sitting there watching what goes on. You can see the wonder on the parent's face but you can see the pleasure on the child's face.

"They change during the teaching session."

Dyslexia affects about one in 10 schoolchildren and leads to struggles with reading and spelling that often do not reflect a child's true intelligence.

The school, which Dr Brown remains co-principal of, has a mission to provide supportive, tailored education for children with dyslexia.

The passion for helping teach literacy in children with dyslexia runs in the family.

Dr Daryl Brown is Neville's son and the school's other co-principal.

Pupils are taught using a system called the morphological approach, which uses a series of icons to make a visual link between meaning and spelling, instead of students being taught using phonics.

For example, for a word in the past tense, they draw a backwards clock. For a verb - or "doing word" - they draw a spring.

"It works as a visual token to remind us that, that word with -ed on the end, no matter how you're going to say it, puts that word into the past tense," Daryl said.

"And that's the way we teach our pupils, meaning and spelling first, how you're going to say it, that comes afterwards because it varies so much."

One student said: "My old school tried everything, they gave me special glasses, gave me blue paper, but nothing seemed to work, but I've really grasped the icons system here.

"I felt like a lab rat really, everything chucked at me, so it wasn't very nice, but everyone here has got the same thing so you just feel at ease."

Another said at her old school she would see friends "being congratulated and being praised for their achievements and I just wouldn't be".

"It was like being the odd duck, it wasn't very nice," she said.

Despite turning 90, Dr Brown has no intentions of slowing down.

When asked how he felt about having helped hundreds of children over the years made him feel, he replied with one word.

"Old."

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