A former pupil of a specialist dyslexia school in Lichfield is celebrating after achieving his Masters degree.
David Johnson had a reading age of just six when he joined Maple Hayes School as an 11-year-old and was suffering low esteem due to difficulties in learning at mainstream schools.
But the 24-year-old has now completed his Masters degree in product design at De Montfort University.
David said the achievements would not have been possible without the Lichfield school which he said “transformed” his life.
“It was an opportunity I needed to be able to grow in confidence and being at the school was a turning point for me.
“But I soon thrived in my education, writing and confidence, and I’ll be forever grateful, and so glad I had the opportunity which then was a springboard for me to pursue and complete a Masters, which is something I never thought I would be able to do.”
David Johnson
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.
Headteacher Dr Daryl Brown said:
“We are so proud of David for his achievements and that we were able to start him on this journey of learning after such a tough start in his life.
“He could do all of these things because of the foundation he learnt here and that he could take these along with him in life, so it’s great to see him thriving.”
Dr Daryl Brown