THIS year would have marked the 40th anniversary of the Dyslexia Day Centre, founded at a time when the condition was only just being officially recognised.
It went on to serve hundreds of local school children but was closed in June last year after States funding was cut and the number of children being catered for dropped.
It was founded by Mike and Teresa O’Hara, who trace its origins back to 1983, when their son was assessed as being dyslexic.
This assessment was done by Peter Gilchrist, who used to visit the island once a month and went on to see Mike and Teresa’s son every six months.
‘After about three years, our son hadn’t really progressed in his school work,’ said Teresa.
‘So Mr Gilchrist said, “You’ve got three options. You could send him away to a boarding school, you could just leave him, or do something about it”. We said, “we’ll do something about it” and that’s really how it came about.’
She wrote to the UK Dyslexia Institute, which provided help and advice and a trip to the UK to meet representatives of the group followed.
Back in Guernsey, however, things were not easy: ‘Even though we had an assessment report and took that in to school, it wasn’t recognised,’ she said.
‘They just didn’t want to know.’
So the couple put an advert in the Guernsey Press to see if there were any other parents with children in a similar situation, inviting them to a coffee morning to talk about it.
‘At that time we thought we were the only parents that had a child like this, because nobody spoke about it. But quite a few parents turned up.’
Sensing that this was perhaps a bigger issue than they had realised, a formal meeting was called.
Initially this was going to be in the Castel Douzaine Room, but after it was promoted Teresa said the couple started to think that the space would not be big enough, so they got permission for it to be held at Les Beaucamps School.
That meeting took place in February 1983, and saw more than 200 people, including many States members, turn up to hear about plans to set up an association. Speakers included Mr Gilchrist and a representative from the Dyslexia Institute.
Once the association was established it met with the then Education Council, but with dyslexia still not being recognised, the children had to receive the special tuition outside of school hours.
Eventually, however, this changed and dyslexia specialists were allowed to see the youngsters during the school day.
But at first it was clear that a specialist centre was needed to cater for the children, and the association was given the go-ahead to set this up in the old pavilion at the KGV playing fields.
So, on a day in June 1986, parents of dyslexic youngsters came together and set about preparing the place for opening, which it did in October that year.
‘It was lovely,’ said Teresa. ‘It looked out onto the cricket ground and had a lovely atmosphere.’
However, she also remembered that it was ‘freezing cold’ during the winter.
The site offered a library, reception room and two consultation and teaching rooms as well as other facilities.
They remained at the KGV for nearly 30 years before the building was demolished and they were able to arrange a move to the former St Andrew’s Primary School, which closed in 2015.
Teresa remembered it being a challenging time.
‘The state of the place was horrendous’.
They found that a lot of work was needed to make the place suitable and it ended up costing thousands before the new centre was able to open.
In the years that followed the centre received financial support from the States which allowed it to cater for about 100 primary age children at any one time, but Teresa said they sometimes taught more than that and covered the additional costs themselves.
The teaching was not just at the KGV and the dyslexia specialists went into local primary schools where they could see a child for up to two years after which the child would have to go the centre.
But in 2023 the States announced that it had the capacity to bring the tuition of dyslexic children in-house and so it would not longer be providing funding of £250,000 a year to the centre, leaving donations as its only form of income.
The centre carried on for a couple more years but it closed in June 2025.
‘There was no way we could continue because, obviously, there wasn’t enough work for our teachers to do,’ said Teresa.
Even when it was receiving funds from the States it still required a lot of money to be raised in order to keep going.
Mike said the couple were disappointed at the States’ decision and the closure of the centre.
‘Here was a situation where the States were getting what I think was a very professional outfit, done properly, everything spot on, literally on their doorstep, and they just didn’t want it.
‘Or certain people in the States didn’t want it. It’s as simple as that.’
The couple said they were still being contacted by parents following the loss of the centre.
‘Some parents are still coming back to us now who find things distressful because they can’t get their children taught the way they should be taught,’ he said.
When the centre closed it was employing about 10 teachers, only two of whom found employment within States schools.
Teresa was not sure if they were still tutoring dyslexic children specifically.
The disappointment they both felt at the closure of the centre is tempered a little at the thought of their achievements with the youngsters who they saw during its existence, many of whom went on to take exams at secondary schools.
‘They did extremely well,’ said Teresa, ‘and they’ve got fantastic jobs.’