Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones (The Black Farmer) visited school on Tuesday 8th December. He gave a highly inspiring talk about his life, interests and work. He is passionately interested in dyslexia and dyspraxia having both himself.
His main tenets and advice for our pupils were:-
- Ask questions – although Wilfred left school at 16 still struggling to read and write, he never stopped asking questions
- Over-learn – dyslexic children need to do this whether it be in reading/spelling or any other aspect of life
- Dyslexia is a gift – dyslexics see the big picture and often come up with great ideas
- Visual learning is of vital importance
- Dream – Wilfred had a dream 40 years ago – to own his own farm – not the usual kind of thing for a poor eleven year black boy to dream of in the early sixties
- Dedication and focus are all – go for it and do the work!
He also talked about the lives of his three children, all with different degrees of dyslexia, about making films for television, about his proudest moment - that of writing his recipe book and about his famous ‘Black Farmer (gluten free) Sausages'.
On the wider political and education front, Wilfred is standing for election in Wiltshire and, if elected, one of his policies will be that initial teacher training must incorporate learning about dyslexia, that assessment must start early and that facilities and provision for dyslexics and dyspraxics must improve.
Pupils asked some very interesting questions and there was a long queue at the end for some of the most enterprising pupils to get his autograph!
Rachel Langton
Image Gallery: Click any of the thumbnails below to see the full version.
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