The oldest teacher in Britain looks at his inheritance

Double celebrations occur for the oldest British professor this month – not only does he mark his 90th anniversary, but also the impact he had on dyslexia education for six decades.

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

Students who were once unable to write their names continued to obtain a minimum of seven GCSE, university degrees and have become very efficient professionals.

“I see each child always for the evaluation before coming here, before doing their week in a class,” said Dr. Brown.

“The parents are sitting there watching what’s going 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 approximately one in 10 schoolgirls and leads to difficulties with reading and spelling which often do not reflect the true intelligence of a child.

The school, which Dr. Brown remains co-principe, is responsible for providing favorable education and adapted to dyslex children.

The passion to help teach literacy in children with dyslexia takes place in the family.

Dr. Daryl Brown is the son of Neville and the other co-principes of the school.

Students are taught using an icon system, which sees them drawing small images above words to help phonetics.

For example, for a word to the past, they draw a back clock. For a verb – or “make a word” – they draw a spring.

“It works like a visual token to remind us that, this word with -ED at the end, no matter how you are going to say, puts this word in the past,” said Daryl.

“And this is how we teach our students, the meaning and spelling first, how you will say it, which comes after because it varies so much.”

A student said: “My old school tried everything, he gave me special glasses, gave me blue paper, but nothing seemed to work, but I really seized the icon system here.

“I really felt like a laboratory rat, everything threw me, so it was not very nice, but everyone here has the same thing, so you feel comfortable.”

Another said in her old school that she would see friends “being congratulated and being rented for their achievements and I would not be”.

“It was like being the strange duck, it was not very nice,” she said.

Despite 90 years, Dr. Brown has no intention of slowing down.

When he was asked what he thought he had helped hundreds of children over the years, he made it felt, he replied with a word.

“Old.”

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