Cabot Learning Federation

Henry Winkler At Kings Oak Academy

Following the success of the “First News Reading Tours” of previous years, Henry Winkler, OBE and First News took to the road once again and as part of that tour visited King’s Oak Academy.

 The First News My Way! Campaign, supported by uDraw™, has already had a huge impact raising awareness of the needs of children with learning challenges in schools throughout the UK. My Way! has been making the UK a more friendly place and dispelling the stigma felt by children with learning difficulties, raising the self-esteem of children affected and giving their friends a greater understanding of the challenges one in five of the children in their class face. Henry is dyslexic himself and shares his story with school children telling them: “How you learn has nothing to do with how smart you are.”

He says: “School was unbelievably hard for me. Teachers didn’t know what dyslexia was at that time. So I was labelled a troublemaker. I was the class clown. I got a bad grade in everything but lunch. I was great at lunch!

“I was told I was stupid, lazy and not living up to my potential most of my life. And, when you’re younger and you’re told that, you believe it. It’s part of yourself image.

“Just because we learn differently, that does not mean that we are not incredibly smart human beings. That’s something I need every child to understand.”

Despite Henry’s dyslexia he has gone on to become a bestselling author of children’s novels in addition to his success in acting and directing. He has recently been awarded an OBE for the work he does for children with learning difficulties.

On the tour Henry will be introducing British children to his Hank Zipzer stories, which are published by Walker Books in the UK. They focus on a 10- year-old boy with dyslexia and are the story of his life with a fictional twist.

Lee Bowles, Learning Resource Centre Manageress at King’s Oak said, “Staff and students are really excited about the visit of Henry Winkler to King’s Oak, it’s a tremendous honour and privilege for us. This visit will highlight some of the issues around dyslexia but also promote the importance of literacy to our students and that reading can be fun.”