Specialist dyslexia schools...input needed!

[DyslexiaHelpNeeded]

Hi! We've decided that our very bright, dyslexic daughter needs more support than her current South London Prep school is providing.

We are looking at:

• Fairley House
• Burlington House
• Calder House
• Moon Hall
• The Unicorn School

I'd love to speak to or hear from parents who have kids at any of these! Are they seeing reading/writing improvement, is the school well structured, are the kids happy?

Thank you in advance!!

My son went to Fairley House then moved to Burlington House. I rate Burlington House way way above Fairley House.

Farleigh has done wonders for a couple of my friends’ children. It might be on the pricey side, but for that, you get the most out of all of the various therapists that are needed for dyslexic children. From what I gather, they are often found to have additional conditions that do not necessarily affect behaviour, but that make learning difficult: speech & language, understanding and remembering sounds (makes learning phonics doubly tricky), the need for OT to strengthen muscles for writing, etc. One of my friends is a speech therapist who has worked there & she said that it works because all of the various experts involved work together & communicate well. There are still some issues (there always are) where different people, including parents, disagree with how things should or could be done, but nevertheless, it is a good school & it is worth going for a visit & ideally, speaking to some of the current parents. (Current is crucial, as we all know that schools can go up and down with changes of ownership, leadership or recruitment).

Oops. Fairley, not Fairleigh. Damned phonics!

That’s really interesting. I’d love to know more: what is the difference? I have a couple of friends who were all lyrical about Fairley when my DD was struggling in her mainstream school, but that was a few years ago now. What has changed?

Our 10 yr old son joined Frewen College prep school as a day pupil in Sept. They have a lovely school in Northiam and take boarders. The prep school is very small and the support is amazing.

It may be worth considering as another option and the senior school is also very nice. Both parts of the school have very small class sizes of 8 or less children. All lessons are fully dyslexia adapted. Children use a variety of resources and adaptive technology.

Bumping this as I have exactly the same query. We are looking at both Fairley House and Burlington House, but given the costs would like to insight from any parents with children at either of the schools.

Hello! I am moving to London from NYC this summer and am looking at Fairley House and Burlington house for my9 yr old son. He needs a lot of additional support with a structured Literacy program and was wondering if anyone was familiar with Burlington House? His current school uses the same program as Fairley house, but not loving the commute/ location. Thx in advance !

My son went to Fairley House from year 2 to year 7, when we moved him to Burlington House. He’s doing GCSEs there now and will go on to the sixth form. In my experience the teaching and SEN support is better at Burlington House. The headteacher Koen Claeys is very good and it might be worth asking to speak to him as depending on profile of your child it might or might not be a good fit.

Thank you so so so much! I really appreciate it. We are meeting with the school in March. I will meet with Mr. Claeys and see what he thinks.