Supporting SpLD learner transition to HE.
Eight Aimhigher projects, aimed at widening participation to higher education for disadvantaged learners, recently received HEFCE funding. The AchieveAbility Project: breaking barriers to higher education for students with specific learning difficulties, was the only one to be funded for disabled learners. It aims to support progression through a series of outreach activities to raise awareness of HE opportunities.
The project will select students who themselves have specific learning difficulties (SpLD) such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or dyscalculia from universities to become Ambassadors for the project.
They will receive training from the project team and the Dyslexia Institute and will then support SpLD learners in schools and colleges. Ambassador work has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to reach out to disaffected learners because HE student role models challenge preconceived myths about access to education.
This work will be especially effective as SpLD Ambassadors have important experience of the path they trod to get to university. Through a series of workshops for SpLD learners and their parents, Ambassadors will provide information about learning and financial support, course choice, the student experience and admissions procedures.
A programme of support and information for SpLD learners is essential if they are to make a smooth transition to HE. This works particularly well when universities link up with partner schools and colleges to provide information about the kind of support that is available and how to access it.
Accessible Information for staff and students can be in the form of staff development sessions, information packs, web and CD-Rom information. Transition programmes can include partner work on teaching and learning materials to support the SpLD student to provide an integrated learning support plan for the individual learner.
The University of Bath and Wiltshire College have been involved in innovative work with partners to explore an integrated staff development approach focused on SpLD learner needs and their learning support. At the University for the Arts another innovative project has been developed called Into Art with Dyslexia.
Using the arts as a vehicle to inspire the project has helped to develop a vision of progression for the participating student leading to understanding of the nature of dyslexia and the realisation that it is not a barrier to academic success. Working with a specific subject area to develop study skills and awareness of the culture of HE can be a good way to introduce the SpLD learner to higher study.
There is much good practice that has been developed to support the progression of SpLD students to HE and it is essential that we all work together as partners across the broad educational spectrum to build on this initiative.
Katherine Hewlett MA RCA,
AchieveAbility Project Manager and Head of Educational Development, University of Westminster.
