For children who are dyslexic, the transition from primary school to secondary school is a very daunting prospect much more so than for children who do not have these difficulties.  Most primary and secondary schools work collaboratively to put in place strategies which will help children who are dyslexic to cope with this new stage of their educational career.  Arrangements must be made before the children move to secondary.  If you are unsure about what these arrangements are, then you should discuss this with the primary school.

Transition: The Difficulties

The difficulties in secondary schools include:

• teachers and children who do not know about how dyslexia affects the individual
• lots of subject teachers and lots more children – a need to remember more names
• change of classroom every period – remembering locations
• finding their way around – directional difficulties
• timetable – trying to remember which subject, which teacher and where to go on what day
• more books and equipment – what is needed each day
• lots of homework – what to do for each day and has it been copied correctly
• new terminology in new subjects – information overload
• fewer opportunities for reinforcement
• an increase in written recording across the curriculum – concerns about spelling etc.
• lack of confidence because of new unfamiliar situations
• new support staff
  

Transition: Some Solutions

• inform all teachers that your child is dyslexic.  It may be necessary to do this each year.
• match pictures of secondary staff with subjects and names for several weeks before transfer.
• use a map of the secondary school to spot locations and how to get to them from different subject departments.
• make sure that children can read timetables in advance provide several small blank timetables which you can help your child to fill in on transfer and keep spares handy as they will lose them and/or forget them.
• remind children each evening and morning which day it is and which books/homework/equipment are needed tomorrow or that day.

• encourage your child to keep a big copy of the timetable in the bedroom or preferred location as a see at a glance reminder.
• encourage your child to check his/her bag for homework each night.
• ask secondary school to consider a buddy being allocated to each child for the first few weeks of term to help with directions, checking homework, reminding about where to go next etc.
• suggest that a glossary of terms in new subjects be issued before each new unit of work so that together with your child you can find out the meanings of these terms before work begins.
• provide  access to ICT as much as possible to reduce the burden of written work.  Ideally your child should have his/her own laptop or desktop with spellchecker, predictive software and access to a printer at home.
• encourage your child to explain to teachers how he/she learns best and what he/she needs to support the learning process.