A Dundee mum has won a long-running battle with education bosses to get them to recognise her daughter’s dyslexia after a headteacher said they did not “label” children.
Tina Donald, 32, raised concerns about whether her daughter Marcy, then in primary three, might suffer from the condition last year but was told by her teacher she had nothing to worry about.
Then, last November, she was told Marcy was being given additional learning support after all.
Both Tina and her mother have been diagnosed with dyslexia and when Tina asked the headteacher of St Pius Primary School if her daughter would be tested for the condition, she claims she was told the school did not like to “label” pupils.
Eventually, Tina was forced to pay £250 for a private test which confirmed that, despite her large vocabulary, Marcy has a form of dyslexia that affects how she processes information.
She has also been diagnosed with Meares-Irlen Syndrome, which makes it difficult to read and requires special corrective glasses.
Tina eventually withdrew Marcy from St Pius so she could attend St Luke’s and St Matthews, which promised better support for the youngster.
She lodged a complaint with the council in February but claims she was fobbed off as the council believed she was merely a “frustrated parent”.
Now, after taking her complaint to city council chief executive David Martin, she has won a full apology from the council — along with the promise of the support Marcy needs to thrive in school.
Tina said: “I think it’s shocking how long people have to fight.
“It’s great they have accepted it and will give Marcy the support she needs but there will probably be other people out there in the same situation who don’t know what to do.”
She added: “Now I wish I had just taken Marcy out of school. That way they would have contacted me and I could have told them I was not sending her to school because she was not getting the support she needed.”
In a letter to Tina, education manager Pamela Nesbitt wrote: “I apologise sincerely for the distress and ongoing anxiety this has caused you and your extended family.”
Ms Nesbitt said relationships between Tina and staff at St Pius, including an education psychologist, “had broken down due to poor communication both written and in face-to-face meetings”.
Ms Nesbitt also said there had been “issues with the communication and the information from the school and the educational psychologist resulting in the assessment processes and recognition of additional support needs not being clearly shared and understood.”
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said it would be inappropriate to comment on matters affecting individual pupils.
