Former Dyslexia school pupil turns teacher to help others like him

A former pupil of specialist dyslexia school Maple Hayes in Staffordshire has proved that anyone can overcome dyslexia and is now teaching in the same classrooms he was taught.

Sam O’Neill was a pupil at Maple Hayes between 2000 and 2007,  joining the school when he was just eight years old, but had a reading age of a six-year-old.

 Mr O’Neill, who said he had many happy memories from his time at the school, thrived with the support and encouragement of teachers at Maple Hayes Hall, meaning he was able to complete his GCSE’s a year early, and leave at the age of 15.

He then went onto college to study Health and Social Care, before before deciding he wanted to go back into education to become a teacher himself.

 After spotting an advertisement for a post at his former school, he jumped at the chance to apply, and was fortunate enough to be given the role.

 Sam said: “I went on from social care to get a degree in education and I’m now a qualified primary teacher and my PGCE allows me to teach primary and to fill in and be a learning support assistant at older ages.

 “At Maple Hayes, I’m currently filling in for geography and I’m supporting with handwriting and spelling, covering KS2. It’s a great opportunity for me to work with pupils at a school I’m very familiar with, and of course having overcome dyslexia myself, being able to support those in similar circumstances.

 “When I walked through the doors after all these years it was strange but very familiar at the same time and so I settled back in very quickly. The staff were very welcoming and it was great to see that the school has maintained its traditional focus on standards and working towards personal academic success for its pupils.

 “I have a lot of very happy memories from my time as a pupil here and it was a huge relief when I came here at the age of eight to get the support I needed. So of course to be now able to give that support back to the pupils I’m teaching is incredible,” he said.

Dr Daryl Brown, the schools’ headteacher, said: “When Mr O’Neill walked through the doors again for the interview it was great to see the path he had taken since leaving us all those years ago and we knew he would be just perfect for the job.

“Having someone who is dyslexic themselves and has gone through our school, learning our very unique morphological teaching method and then being able to apply it himself when teaching children now is a very great skill to have. We are proud to have him on the team and he has fitted in so well with the school, teachers and of course the children he is now helping along their learning journey,” he added.

Maple Hayes teaches a system called the ‘morphological approach’, which uses a series of icons to make a visual link between meaning and spelling instead of pupils being taught using phonics.

For more details about the school, visit this link