The ‘Write Offs’ reaches 4.5 million viewers and is rated 4th in Channel 4’s top 50 programme

Before the lockdown we were told that the ‘Write-Offs’ programme would be aired in April 2020, so the wait began, what month would be appropriate to air the show?

The wait was over, the first episode was to be aired on September 22 following the ‘Bake Off’ programme.  We were ready with text messages and calls beginning to come in.  After watching the first episode, I retired to bed to watch the second episode.  I was so impressed with the way the programme had been edited, it focused on the learners and their journeys.  The activities used for the programme demonstrated to the audience the issues they faced in everyday tasks, such as applying for a job or having the confidence to speak to employers.  Using public transport or making a shopping list to feed their family are all things we would find straight forward.  Many of these everyday issues are taken for granted, but for those with learning difficulties, they can feel rejected and inferior to others they come into contact with.  This was evident in the first episode where Craig talked about feeling a failure.  Even before he had started, he felt that he would be left behind, a feeling that had been with him all his life.

Dean and Craig showed masterful strategies in finding their way to meet Sandi who was in a restaurant 30 miles away.  They were unable to read the maps at the train or bus station, so they decided to rent a car, using a satnav.  Genius!

As the week passed, we received such positive feedback from so many people.  My neighbour had mentioned that she had taken her daughter to school and that the teachers were all talking about the ‘Write-Offs’ programme and how good it was.  She then proudly told everyone that it was her neighbour who was on the programme. What a great way to gain recognition of the work we have been doing to be shared by the nation.

Looking at the Thinkbox top 50 programmes report from Channel 4 September 21 – 27 the total viewing audience over the week (including live, VOSDAL, time-shifted and total audience viewing figures) we ranked 4th just after ‘The Great British Bake Off’ and ‘Gogglebox’.

Everyone was watching to see how the learners developed.  Paul story was especially sad, after being a teacher of English and drama, he suffered a stroke.  He had lost his ability to read and write and was having to learn all over again. Craig was right when he said it was so much harder for Paul because his situation was life changing whereas the other learners had lived with dyslexia all of their lives.  It was great to hear Martin Kemp share his story with Paul, giving him the advice to just keep going, never give up.

Half way through the programme Sandi Toksvig tweeted: “I’d like you to tune in to channel 4 now for the final of the ‘Write Offs’ – a show that has been my true honour to work with, shining the light on the issue of adult illiteracy across the UK” (4,706 hearts).

Then Dean tweeted replying to @sanditokvig @JHMLETMEOUT and @Channel 4: “Thank you for coming with us on our journey and being part of getting the conversation started on how we look at dyslexia.  I loved every minute! And my life has opened up with new opportunities because of this show.  Much Love!” – Everyone just went mad sharing and tweeting!  Well done Dean.  One reporter wanted to publish Dean’s whole speech:

‘Benjamin Franklin, who was dyslexic himself, said, “Tell me and I will forget. Teach me and I may remember.  Involve me and I will learn.”

This quote makes sense to me when I look back at my time in school: in the English room, waiting for my work to be checked.  We would have written about some book that I wasn’t interested in.  My English workbook would be littered with red marks, spelling mistakes put right, missed grammar put in, but with no explanation as to why it was wrong.  Was I missing something that everyone else was getting effortlessly?

Standing up in class and reading out loud filled me with anger and embarrassment.  And it would end one of two ways, sitting down all red faced after what seemed like an hour of reading or being told to go to the principal’s office for acting up after hearing giggles, as I was stuck on a word that was simple to the others. This went on all the way through my English schooling, and I can never remember the teacher telling the other kids not to laugh, or telling them that it wasn’t my fault that I was dyslexic.  I think this shaped the way I am today, thick skinned but, in day to day life, I shy away for anything to do with reading and writing.  Even reading a book to my kids would put me back behind the eyes of that angry, confused kid.

My time with the amazing Rosemary, (my tutor on Channel Four’s ‘Write Offs’) has shown me that I can learn English, and at a fast pace, as long as it is put in a format that I can get involved in.  Where was she for my 7 years of English classes as a child?

But for the first time in a long time I feel more engaged and alive with our beautiful language and, with every book I read with my children, I feel less of that angry, confused kid.  I am, for the first time in my life enjoying learning English, and I am looking forward to continuing my learning after my time on ‘The Write Offs’.

Having reading and writing difficulties isn’t just my story.  With 1 in 10 of us having dyslexia, and 1 in 5 of us being classed as functionally illiterate, there are a lot of us out there.  But when I set out on this journey, I knew nothing of what being dyslexic really meant, only that I had it.  I’d never been told of the great accomplishments of Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell who had a dyslexic brain just like me.  Or that 50% of all NASA scientists are dyslexic too, and that’s just a really short list.  Maybe I could have been a scientist if my head was full of these wonderful facts as a kid.

Did you know that there are a staggering number of young offenders with reading and writing difficulties?  I can see how the anger and disconnection I felt towards my peers and teachers in school could have shaped my life’s decisions and sent me down the wrong path if it weren’t for good friends and family.  On the other hand, did you know that 40% of the world’s self-made millionaires are dyslexic?  That is a big difference in outcomes. 

Now imagine if those young offenders were given a teacher like we have had.  Someone to tell them that their big beautiful brain just thinks differently to everyone else’s and needs teaching in a different more involved way.

Someone to fill their heads with all the great people that have gone on to do wonderful things with their lives because of their brains and how they think differently.

My question to you is: Do you think we could stop wasting great minds?  Do you think we could unlock the next Einstein?’

This programme with Sandi Toksvig has opened up the floodgates for people wanting to talk about low literacy and learning difficulties.

The Executive Producer for Shine TV, Lana Salah, has revealed the final consolidated ratings for both programmes on channel 4

  • Across its two episode run, THE WRITE OFFS delivered a consolidated average audience of 1.61 million viewers with a market share of 8.6% – this was +28% higher than Channel 4’s primetime average.
  • Performing exceptionally well among younger adults, THE WRITE OFFS delivered an average share of 16.9% for Adults 16-34, which was +93% up on Channel 4’s average.
  • THE WRITE OFFS exceeded Channel 4’s average share across all key demographics: Adults 35-54 (+26%), ABC1 Adults (+30%), Housewives (+25%), Men (+8%) & Women (+35%).
  • Across its two episodes, THE WRITE OFFS reached 4.5 million people (based on 3 minutes consecutive viewing).

Our learners are still the topic of conversation.  Emily’s dream was to become a hairdresser which she achieved before start of the show.  Her manager wanted her to take over his salon, but she felt that was too big a challenge for her.  We spoke last week about her becoming a midwife.  I spoke to one of my friends who is a nurse and he was so impressed with Emily when watching the show that he advised her to go to college/university where there would be so much support to help her to gain the qualifications, so watch this space.

The Cascade Foundation will be continuing to follow the learners and their great achievements.

Dyslexia Series, BBC World Service 6th and 13th October 2020

On 20th May, Jackie Hewitt-Main OBE received an email from Stella Sabin of Cast Iron Radio and Recording:

I am a producer working on a series for the BBC World Service, along with my colleagues Kate Bland and Toby Withers.  The series will consist of two programmes looking at Dyslexia from a global perspective, across childhood, adolescence and adulthood.  We have noticed in our research that the conversation about Dyslexia often seems to end when pupils leave school.  We really want to look at the longer-term impact of Dyslexia on individuals and on society as a whole, so are very keen to talk to you about your work.

We first came across the report on the ‘Dyslexia Behind Bars’ project at Chelmsford prison and were really struck by your findings – not only the extent of Dyslexia in prisons, but the cycle you identified of low self-esteem leading to a sense of failure and frustration, leading to behaviour problems, leading to school exclusion and difficulties finding work, eventually leading to serial reoffending.  The impact of the mentorship/multi-sensory approach on reoffending rates seems remarkable.  We would really love to learn a bit more about the project and your more recent work on The Cascade Foundation.  Do you have any time for a phone call next week? Would be great to speak.

Here’s what Jackie did next! “I sent all our reports to them and suggested they watch our videos within the prison on YouTube.  From this they could see how learning with our multi-sensory projects work, and the fun they had, whilst still learning, with props such as toothpaste, sand, water and masking tape, helping to engage with the hardest-to-reach prisoners.

Please watch our videos on YouTube for the Teachers TV: Literacy Behind Bars, Surprise Surprise and The Cascade Foundation – ThisWayoutUK. Seeing our work firsthand!

The interview was to happen in Sue Blackburn’s (Cascade Secretary) garden on the 14 July, we were to use long lapel mics to ensure 2m distance.  The conversation started with the fact that the both of them were dyslexic and had been diagnosed at different times of their life.  Stella was fortunate to have been diagnosed at about six years of age.  Her parents could see that she was struggling and were able to get her diagnosed. Tobias was not diagnosed until later at university.

This is how we started the interview.  They understood how my statement of dyslexia was due to me being at university at the age of 40 years old, my son Richard was then diagnosed at the Glamorgan University.  We spoke about my childhood and the issues I faced every day, not understanding why I could not learn.  Verbally I was top of the class but for my written work I was bottom of the class.

We spoke about my work at the Bullwood Hall a womens’ prison where I started my journey into the understanding of learning difficulties within the criminal justice system.  I shared the story of a young girl during a maths class, I was to shadow a tutor in the classroom with nine learners  The maths tutor was off sick, so I explained to the learners why I was volunteering in the prison and my own difficulties with learning.  I noticed a young girl sitting on her own day-dreaming and I asked to have a look at her work.  She showed me how she was trying to learn how to tell the time.  I realised that she needed a multi-sensory approach, to play with the hand of the clock.  I asked the teacher if they had any clocks to play with when I was taken outside the room and told that these girls are seeking attention and the teacher had already shown her.

I asked if anybody had the time to sit with these prisoners to find out if any of them had dyslexia or any learning difficulties.  This angered the teacher and she walked back into the classroom.  I then shadowed the same teacher during an English class.  I spoke about my own learning difficulties and a young girl admitted that she too was diagnosed with dyslexia.  The teacher shouted at the learner because she had not shared this with the teacher.  Working within the womens’ prison I could see that learning difficulties with the learners was not being addressed.  The learners were clearly becoming frustrated with the teaching and this resulted in many kickoffs within the classrooms.  Sometimes I would be teaching a few prisoners, and I would be called out by the management and put with a prisoner who would be so angry because she had been taught for a whole year on lowercase d and b, when all that was needed was to help her with a different way of learning.

I found the whole situation in the education department absolutely appalling I could understand why so many of the young girls were frustrated and angry. I found that teachers had little idea how to teach or to come up with creative ideas to help these prisoners. This was my first experience of prison education and it motivated me to go into as many establishments as I could to see what other problems were happening with other learners with learning difficulties.

My journey was to take me across the world to show educators, tutors and coaches how to teach people with learning difficulties in a way they could understand, and to make learning fun.

The interview lasted for three hours, it was so great to talk about my experiences and share so many of my stories how learners and prisoners had completely changed their lives in such a short time.

I remember in Chelmsford prison there was a particular prisoner who was a self-harmer.  He had placed a razor blade into the bottom of his lip where it would stay.  On this particular day he had come from the induction wing.  I was sitting at the table tennis table and invited him to have a chat with me about his life and why he was in prison.  I asked if there was anything that I could do to help him.   He explained how school was hard because he had been diagnosed with dyslexia when young.  He could not read and write so he had been sent to a specialist school many miles away from his home. He told me that he was in prison because of drink and drugs.  He then admitted to me that he had been sexually abused by a teacher at the school.  Every time the police tried to open the case up against this teacher, the prisoner would hit the drink and drugs.  I then asked if it was okay if I spoke to his mum.  He agreed and his mum was so shocked to hear that her son had spoken to me about his school days, and she was so pleased that he had confided in somebody for the first time in years.  She told me that altogether there were 40 children, and the investigation was ongoing.  Over the years, 37 of the victims had committed suicide, they could not take the shame of what happened to them.

A little while later an officer told me how he knew that I’d spoken to this particular prisoner and how his whole demeanour had changed.  He now wanted to engage with my programme, and he had spoken to the prison officers about the issues that had brought him into prison.  This made it easier for the staff to have a better understanding of the problems he had suffered and were now able to work with him.  He had been with us for 9 months, all the self-harming had stopped, he was now progressing with his learning and planned to go to college.  He then was moved to another prison and all staff who had been involved were so pleased that he had stopped self-harming and he has not re-offended.

It was so great to share stories with Stella and Tobias.  The tape was left rolling and the stories and the explanations of my methods of teaching and measuring learners self-esteem were listened to with much interest.  I explained the importance of giving learners with learning difficulties confidence, showing them ways to use different techniques and tools to help themselves in their everyday life.

I was so honoured to be involved with the ‘Dyslexic Series’ for the BBC World Service.  It is a two-part show involving language in childhood and then moving into adulthood.  It has been produced and prepared by people also suffer with dyslexia.

Dyslexia 

BBC World Service

6th October: Language and Childhood  

Dyslexia literally means a “difficulty with words”. It is a condition that affects 1 in 5 of us worldwide.  Educators, neurologists and linguists have different approaches, but research shows that the language we learn to speak and write has an impact.  In this first programme Toby Withers reveals the challenges of learning English, with all its inconsistent rules and odd spellings.  He talks about the subject of a ground-breaking study into bilingual dyslexic children – Alex – who is dyslexic in English but not in Japanese.  From Hong Kong University he discovers how dyslexia in character-based language systems is different to dyslexia in English.

13th Oct: Into Adulthood – Jackie Hewitt-OBE

Reading and writing are fundamental tools in most societies, necessary for even the most basic of tasks.  For the person with dyslexia ,this can cause an agonising disjuncture from an early age.  Stella Sabin looks at the impact of the condition in adult life, and asks what difference it makes to know the name of what you are experiencing.  Dyslexic people are disproportionately represented in low paying jobs, and in the US and the UK 50% of the prison population are dyslexic.  She visits the UK intelligence and security organisation GCHQ who are positively recruiting dyslexic thinkers, who are able to find unusual and imaginative solutions to complex problems…like cracking codes.

Cast Iron Radio and Recording
392 Caledonian Road
London N1 1DN