Dyslexia Day Centre needs to raise £150k before Christmas

ESC recently gave the centre six months’ notice on its contract to provide dyslexia and literacy support to children in primary schools.

It has since agreed to continue funding the service for a smaller number of children until the end of this year only, after which ESC will take the service in-house.

‘We are faced with having to replace two-thirds of our income from January,’ said Mike O’Hara, who co-founded the centre, along with his wife, Teresa, in September 1986.

‘We have started speaking to our benefactors. We are hopeful. We have to be positive and do what we can.

‘We need to raise £100-150,000 between now and Christmas.

‘If not, there could be people who will need to leave the centre, which would be very sad, and we want to avoid that. £100-150k would take us through the rest of next academic year.

‘Education pulling out is a huge blow to us, but we want to try to rebuild the centre. We are so upset with how this has been done, but we are working hard to survive, and we have ideas for the future.’

The centre, which has eight dyslexia teachers, is extending its partnership with Blanchelande College.

It has also recruited new supporters and advisers onto its committee, and is considering how to expand other services.

‘We do a lot of assessment and so there may be opportunities to work more with employers and employees,’ said Mrs O’Hara.

‘We have talked about supporting children privately and offering new services to adults. This would help replace some of the income which ESC is taking away.’

Mr O’Hara said ESC originally wanted to end the centre’s services to schoolchildren at the end of the current school year.

‘Originally they wanted to stop in the summer, but it became apparent they weren’t ready. They had to say that in the end.

‘Losing two-thirds of our income so suddenly would have been impossible for us to withstand,’ he said.

The centre currently supports about 110 schoolchildren through its contract with ESC.

The revised withdrawal plan means that about 75 children who have not yet completed their two-year course with the centre will receive one final term of support until Christmas.

Mr O’Hara said he had not given up hope of ESC being persuaded to extend its partnership with the centre until the end of the next academic year in July 2024.

‘We still think their teachers should shadow ours for a year. There is nothing to stop ESC making that decision. If they turned around and asked us to do it, we’d do it,’ he said.

The centre has spoken to a few deputies who support its work and would like to speak to more.

But most of its backing since the announcement of ESC’s withdrawal has come from the community.

‘We’ve had great support from past students, parents, teachers and others. We’re very grateful,’ said Mr O’Hara.

‘We haven’t had anyone who isn’t behind us.

‘We’ve had people coming up to us in the street who we don’t know and sharing their support with us.’