A mother believes more should be done to prevent children with dyslexia being let down by mainstream schools.

Mental health nurse and a cognitive behavioural therapist Julia Furner has now launched an advocacy group to push for change.

Julia, who has two children – Lily-Faye and Caleb Bell, aged 12 and four respectively – submitted a petition for redress of grievance on Tynwald Hill in 2020.

Her petition, which was signed by 975 members of the public, aimed at improving provision for pupils with dyslexia and/or literacy difficulties in mainstream public funded schools in the Isle of Man.

It was picked up by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture which investigated the matter and completed a public consultation whose key findings and recommendations were consistent with the concerns she had raised.

But since then, Julia says there has been little update.

Julia, who lives in Kirk Michael, said: ‘My motivation and drive is based on my own experiences of having a child with dyslexia in mainstream school.

‘My intention is to support teachers. Teachers want to help but unfortunately there is a lack of training and lack of resources. It has been more than three years since the petition and to my knowledge no further public updates have been made. I have made efforts in trying to gain occasional updates from DESC but to my knowledge not enough is being done. All updates I have received have been verbal in nature.’

She said Douglas South MHK Sarah Maltby and Dawn Kinnish MLC both continue to support the cause.

Julia has now launched a Dyslexia Advisory and Advocacy Group to represent the needs and wishes of those with dyslexia and literacy difficulties in mainstream school and their parents/carers. It held its inaugural meeting last Wednesday.

Julia said: ‘We’ll be working on particular issues in order to press for change. We need a clear direction of what change would look like.

‘We want to work together in a unified way with schools and teachers.’

It is estimated that one in 10 people are dyslexic. Statistics for levels of dyslexia in Manx schools are not available, partly because that it is not the term used. Julia said: ‘They use the term literacy difficulties but it goes beyond literacy and presents outside school as well.’

One aim for the new group is for every school in the island, or at one school in every catchment area, to attain the British Dyslexia Association Quality Marker. Widely recognised nationally and internationally, this award recognises schools where pupils with dyslexia and/or literacy difficulties can thrive.

This could be achieved by benchmarking provision against the BDA’s quality marker, highlighting the gaps in provision and putting pressure on the DESC to close those gaps with the long-term goal of meeting the quality marker.

The group could comment on best practice in other jurisdictions and on the positive impact it has on communities when schools do meet the BDA quality marker.

You can contact the Dyslexia Advisory and Advocacy group on Facebook. Its next meeting will be at the Family Library in Douglas on March 6, between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.