Grace

Grace is a teacher with over 35 years of experience including, teaching in Tanzania and training as a Reading Recovery teacher and early literacy specialist. In 2016, Grace was awarded Reading Recovery Teacher of the Year by UCL’s Institute of Education and led the school to be awarded Reading Recovery School of the Year ^[1]. This sparked a desire to learn more about difficulties in literacy learning and development, individual differences in learning and neurodiversity. She then embarked on a Master’s in Specific Learning Difficulties/Differences and now works part-time as a specialist teacher and assessor both in a school and privately offering diagnostic assessments.

During her professional practice, Grace has experienced pupils from a young age who have developed a negative academic self-concept and low self-esteem and for whom learning to read and write is a struggle. Her thesis^[2] research explored academic self-esteem and self-image in young pupils and how these can be supported by a resilience-based programme to develop coping strategies.

^[1] Congratulations to all the Bristol Schools involved – truly a learning city !, Jul-2016

^[2] Thesis – How pupils with a specific learning difference verbalise their academic self-image and feelings of self-esteem, Aug-2020