1.5 million viewers for episode 1 of ‘The Write Offs’!

Being the on-screen and offscreen expert and working on the after-care package  for the ‘Write Offs’ was so much fun.

The wait was finally over!!!!

The video was set, and we had arranged for two interviews, the first with Becky Hayes for BBC Sheffield and the second with Tony Fisher BBC Essex.  The day that we had been waiting for, ‘The Write Offs’ program, was finally to be aired.

I had been shown 5 minutes of the filming in March of this year, whilst filming in Camden with Shine TV.  I was pleased to see that the focus was on the learners rather than the teacher.  The last filming in 2008 was with Phil Beadle on Channel 4 Can’t Read Can’t Write.  Over the three weeks this was aired I cried at every show. I was appalled how he spoke to adult learners with dyslexia.  A very good friend of mine who is an educational consultant had watched the program and admitted to me that he was spitting feathers.  He commented the program did not highlight the issues that we were facing, and nobody had taken the opportunity to get behind it to make a difference, enough though we had 5 million people with low literacy at the time, today we have 8.5 million.

The countdown of the day began with me talking to Becky and we had arranged for Jean Merchant, a learner from The Cascade Hub, to talk about her experience during her time there.  The interview was very emotional for both Becky and the staff who were so engaging to listen how a life can be changed in such a short time. I have just been told that they placed the whole interview again later in the day.

 The afternoon interview was about the technical way you set about helping a learner, and my dream to change the world!

 We had brought every newspaper and magazine, and I had found one of my quotes in the Daily Telegraph, saying that 8.5 million people had low literacy.  The learners were playing a prominent part in promoting the show.  Craig and his family had appeared on the ‘Loraine Show’ and Emily had appeared on the ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’.  They were each given the opportunity to share their story.

 Whilst Boris’s speech had put all the programs back 15 minutes, there’s my mum, Candy the dog and myself watching ‘The Bake off’. Texts were coming in, saying good luck you will nail it, and the 8 learners from the show were counting down the minutes. I sent a text asking to see how they were feeling. Deano said he was nervous, Viv had butterflies.  They were all apprehensive how the audience would perceive them.

 Filming in London in September was different to the original filming in March from the way the program was showing the events.  It started with an initial assessment first and it became apparent how nervous Craig was.  He had walked out from the assessment and I was asked to sit and spend some time with him. He had admitted how many tutors had tried many ways to teach him and nobody could understand how he processed information.  He felt that everyone would gain knowledge and he would be left behind.  I explained about my own dyslexia and my projects, I asked him to trust me and see where this program could lead too.

 Deano teamed up with Craig and they formed a brilliant friendship.  The Travelling Activity showed the genius ideas they used. They could not read the timetable of the buses, or find the train station, so they hired a car.  Amazing.  They solved the problem to get to Sandi Toksvig, arriving safely on time 30 miles away.

 Texts and messages were coming through fast and furious.  Everyone was inspired and falling in love with the learners, their stories and their struggles.  Even our Chairperson Richard had a tear for Tommy when he read his letter out to his work colleagues.

 I retired to bed to watch the second show, which I will blog about next week.  By the morning we had so many emails congratulations us for being on the show. The viewers had found out that I had started a charity and they were reading the blogs and achievements of my work in prisons and the community.  One lad asked if he could help me, he was an unrepresented illustrator also struggling with dyslexia.  A teacher in the north stated that he predicted that the children he was working with would end up in the 8.5 million low literacy bracket.

Later in the day I got an email from a researcher from the BBC 5 Radio, he told me how Jim Davis had been so impressed with the show and would like to have a phone in discussion from 1.00am to 5.00am on Friday morning.  We pre-recorded the show at 11.00pm prior to it being aired.  We spoke about the show, and the learners how they engaged with the different types of learning.  I also shared our figures of prisoners with learning difficulties, and the correlation of crime with SEND.  This really shocked him, his program was to talk on four subjects over the morning, he started talking about ‘The Write Offs’ and how he felt for Tommy.

The audience was to ring in with their stories, one after another speaking about their issues at school, dealing with depression, feeling a failure. One man started crying as he told his story, saying teachers had tried to help but had not had the training to work with special needs.  My pre-recording came on at 4.30am, one 77-year old man phoned me and told me that he felt that I was speaking to him and he just had to found me.  Details of our website had been given out, but he could not access a computer and was unable to read.  He begged the radio station for my number just so that he could share his story.  The sadness in his voice was so hard to hear, a grown man still not being able to read or write. He became very emotional when he told me that both of his sons had a place in University.

Jim Davis did not expect that level of calls and interest in just one subject. I told him how I had spent the last 20 years travelling up and down the country to help people. Jim’s quote on twitter was thanks Jackie such an informative interview – Good luck with all your work.

We have also had a conversation with our MP Rebecca Harris and looking at the next steps to take our projects forwards!!!

Jackie provides her expertise for new Channel 4 show ‘The Write Offs’

Imagine not being able to read a text message, get on a train or use the Internet. ‘The Write Offs’, an empowering and uplifting new two-part series hosted by Sandi Toksvig will explore Britain’s staggering low adult literacy rates and offer a group of adults who will have individual teachers in the different areas of the country.

Featuring an old town crier who hopes to one day write a thank you letter to all of those who have supported him, the young mum who wants to be able to help her son with his homework and others, their quest is to shed the shame and lift the stigma around illiteracy.

Each member of the group will receive one-to-one tutoring over a four-month period, during which they will also face a series of reading, writing and spelling challenges which will then lead to practical activities. The final test will be fronted by Sandy and held in front of an audience of family, friends and teachers – how will they all do?

 In January 2007 my work within Chelmsford prison was being recognised at the House of Lords. Our six months project, funded by the mentoring firm Mentfor, was taking the world by storm. We had local and national TV & newspapers interested in our projects. One such reporter was Jessica Shepherd from The Guardian newspaper who wrote an article about ‘Spelling Out A Better Future: how Dyslexia is thought to affect more than half of those in prison and how special tutoring can turn these lives around.’

This led to many film producers contacting us to source a filming project. One such producer had taken their idea to Channel 4. They wanted to have a year’s project following my work with prisoners through the prison system and into the community. The management at Channel 4 were shocked because their researcher had not resourced our work, they had just started producing a program with Phil Beadle (Britain’s most famous teacher). So, our project was taken to Teachers TV: Literacy Behind Bars. An English teacher from Sittingbourne Community College visited Chelmsford prison to meet myself and to learn the range of radical teaching techniques, including the use of soap, sand and even toothpaste to help prisoners learn how to read and write.

In the summer of 2008, I had ended up in hospital and had to leave my work within the prison. The Channel 4 programme ‘Can’t Read, Can’t Write’ was to be shown over a three-week period. I sat and cried over each program. I was so shocked at how this teacher had not understood adults with learning difficulties and how he even swore at one of his learners. He was constantly tutting and sighing and furrowing his brow and telling everyone how passionate he was about his teaching. I just found that his approach was simply ill-natured dismissal and it didn’t seem like the kind of approach literally to bring about change with these learners.

Over the years my projects were being recognised on radio, television through ITV, the BBC and Victoria Derbyshire but I didn’t get to work with Channel 4 until 2019. A researcher had read about my work within Doncaster Prison on head injuries and they were in the middle of making a documentary on ‘What Makes A Murderer’, working with ex-offenders, analysing their psychology and biology. I was asked if I could have an interview with forensic psychologist, Vicky Thakordas-Desai who had spent 20 years interviewing prisoners and assisting their risk to society. The meeting was to take place with my son Stuart who had received a serious head injury. The outcome of this led to the start of our projects within the prison and community over the last 20 years.

Vicky, Paul (an ex-offender who had received a head injury when young) and a filming crew, started filming our conversation about prisoners who had suffered head injuries during their life, my son’s journey and how it has led to setting up our own charity. Vicky and the film crew were so impressed with my knowledge and understanding of prisoners with learning disabilities. We were not sure how this documentary was going to pan out and if any of our information would be used.

After a week I got a phone call from Shine TV asking me to come to London to do a video recording for a program on literacy. On the day of the filming, I drove from Doncaster to Camden. We had a quick chat with two of the producers and then I was put in front of a camera! They asked me a lot of questions about my work, myself and family. I was introduced to Lana Salah, executive producer for the Shine TV, when a very important phone call came through from Buckingham Palace and she had to leave the interview.

The last question was if I did get involved with this program what would I hope to achieve at the end of this project? I asked, “do you really want to know?” I spoke about the 45 to 50% of people who needed a different place of learning. There is a place for universities and colleges, but it’s not working for everyone, too many people are falling through the cracks and need help. Many agencies are pulling people from pillar to post, instead of making everything accessible under one roof. We need to be teaching differently for everyone. This filming had taken an hour and a half and was now on visual communication for the commissioning editors to review.

I was asked to become the onscreen and offscreen expert while also looking at their after-care package with the learners while waiting for the program to be aired. The first filming of the program was to take place in London. The host is Sandi Toksvig, her son, who is dyslexic meant that she had an understanding of some of the difficulties he had been through.

This was a lady who I had watched on many of her programs of QI and the British Bake Off, so it was a great honour to be introduced to her. On the first day of filming I went to shake her hand and she hugged me, smudging my makeup all over her shirt. She told me how she had seen my video recording and how passionate and enthusiastic I was about my work with the prisoners and ex-prisoners.  She explained that over the years she had so many projects that had been pushed her way with no meaning, making no difference in the world. This project was so humbling.

The first filming of Sandi and myself was just so unreal. Here I was sitting on the settee facing her, talking about my projects with prisoners, children, families and how I have travelled the world helping thousands of people. I kept looking at her face, it was just so strange talking to such a famous person. She seemed genuinely interested in how I spent my life helping others. One film crew member came up to me after and said this is the first time he’s been on this particular filming and in that half an hour of me talking to Sandi he had understood the need for this program.

On the second day of filming I was taken by Lana Salah, executive producer, to meet with Gilly Greenslade and Ian Dunkley, commissioning editors for factual entertainment at Channel 4. I explained how my first documentary was with Teachers TV, and that I’d waited 13 years to be a part of one of their programs. It had felt such a honour that I was to take part in this program and share my knowledge of this particular subject. We spoke about the prototype Cascade Health & Learning Hub which I had designed and delivered courses and projects. The Swedish team had come over to England to observe the Hub and could see the impact our design was having on the prison/community. Their observation remarks were that this project was not just for England but for the world!!

The 13 of March was my last filming day on the program, and I managed to see four minutes and 30 seconds of the program. In the previous program, ‘Can’t Read, Can’t Write’, the emphasis was more on the teacher but in this film it’s all about the learners and their journey, how they have struggled and the frustration of leaving school without understanding their disabilities or why they couldn’t read and write.

It has been an honour to work on this program with fantastic producers, management, learners and of course Sandi Toksvig. What we need now is to get behind this program and show the devastation of peoples’ lives when they can’t read and write. We need passion, commitment, creativity and a contact focus to ensure that all children and adults are given the opportunity to be able to read and write. The estimated yearly cost of functional illiteracy to the UK economy is £37 billion a year (World Literacy Foundation). Adults with poor literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed or in low-paid jobs. There is a link between low levels of literacy and shorter life expectancy, depression and obesity. On top of that, there is a feeling of shame and secrecy.

Gilly Greenslade, Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment at Channel 4 said: “The Write Offs is a joyous way of tackling this important issue and will enable our learners to experience some of the pleasures that come with being able to read and write. We’re delighted to be working with Shine and Sandi Toksvig. Sandi’s humour and warmth coupled with the scale of the challenges make it a fantastic Fact Ent proposition.”

Sandi Toksvig added, “Working on The Write Offs has been one of the great honours of my working life. I have had the extraordinary pleasure of spending time with eight courageous people who have approached their deepest fears with humour and determination. Like me, I just know not only will everyone fall in love with them, they will review what they think they know about reading and writing. I believe the ripple effect from these eight will be astonishing.”

Lana Salah, Executive Producer for Shine TV said, “It has been emotional and inspiring to see the eight brave learners face their biggest fears and internal shame so publicly and we hope, as much as they do, that their journeys inspire the millions of other adults in a similar situation.”

The Write Offs will air on Channel 4, 22nd September 2020