Rotorua people will get the opportunity to learn about living, or supporting someone, with dyslexia when an internationally renowned expert speaks in the city later this month.
The event will be accessible to all thanks to the collaboration of a group, including Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust and John Paul College (JPC).
John Paul College learning support centre co-ordinator, Paulene Walsh has secured Neil MacKay to speak on May 27.
Mr MacKay is an internationally renowned expert on dyslexia and is the international consultant to the Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand, as well as education authorities in the UK, Hong Kong and around the world.
Mrs Walsh says she is particularly thrilled the event will be accessible to all, through a gold coin donation.
“Dyslexia affects an estimated one in ten New Zealanders, including 70,000 school children.
“This is about empowering teachers, students, and whānau to help support themselves and their students or children in the challenges that face learning support students in everyday life – at school, home and work.
“Our learning support students face barriers daily and financial barriers is a block from the beginning.
“Being able to bring Mr MacKay to Rotorua to share his expertise with the wider community is a fantastic opportunity.”
Mrs Walsh says it is really important speakers of this calibre talk in Rotorua.
“Thanks to the generosity of Rotorua Trust, we can bring Mr MacKay to Rotorua for the benefit of the whole community. He’s at the cutting edge of research on dyslexia and will bring valuable insight.”
Rotorua Trust chairman, Stewart Edward says the Trust gave Mrs Walsh seed funding to help enable a series of speakers to come to Rotorua – including Mr MacKay.
A talk last year by resilience specialist, Dr Lucy Hone, had a fantastic response, Mr Edward says.
Mr MacKay’s talk will be held on Monday 27 May, 6.00 – 8.00 pm at John Paul College. Entry is a gold coin donation and you can register with paulene.walsh@jpc.school.nz.
You can read the full NZ Herald article here.