Sean Connery Foundation Legacy

Professional Learning Activity. Assessment, Support and Planning for Literacy Difficulties and Dyslexia

This free Professional Learning Activity (PLA) has been developed by the City of Edinburgh Council’s Literacy and Dyslexia Support Team within Edinburgh Learns. It provides guidance and practical strategies for educational staff, and anyone interested in supporting learners with dyslexia and literacy difficulties.

It is recognised that local authorities across Scotland have their own well-established professional learning programmes to develop the practice of teachers supporting learners with literacy difficulties and dyslexia. The intention of this PLA is therefore not to replace that work, but to share the approaches, resources, and strategies developed within the City of Edinburgh Council, so they may complement and inform wider professional learning across Scotland and beyond.

The team has delivered a secondment-based professional learning programme for Support for Learning teachers, designed to build specialist expertise in assessing and supporting learners with literacy difficulties and dyslexia. Teachers who successfully completed this programme were awarded GTCS Professional Recognition in Support for Learning: Literacy and Dyslexia.

Through generous funding from the Sean Connery Foundation, and in partnership with Dyslexia Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council, and the Sean Connery Foundation Dyslexia Initiative, this work has been expanded and further developed. The resulting materials have enhanced professional learning and strengthened support for learners across Edinburgh schools.

This professional learning activity is one of two that builds on the work of the Sean Connery Foundation Dyslexia Initiative which took place in the City of Edinburgh and the work of. Further information on the initiative which includes Mission Dyslexia and Mission Superheroescan be accessed in the links below.

The development of the two professional learning resources has been funded by a grant from HSBC UK Bank.

Sir Sean Connery’s legacy for dyslexia | Dyslexia Scotland – Dyslexia Scotland