Cavendish Education Founder and Chairman Aatif Hassan on the unique gifts that its schools celebrate and nurture to ensure children who ‘think differently’ will succeed
Rudyard Kipling talked of treating the ‘two imposters’ of triumph and disaster ‘just the same’. During my time at school, as a dyslexic, I learnt this was not as clear cut or as easily achievable as the poet had suggested. On the one hand, I vividly remember struggling to read aloud in Latin whilst contending with the ridicule of peers and classmates (reading in English was challenging enough in those days). Equally, if you put me on the rugby pitch or gave me a complex military-style command task, I was able to see the gaps, angles and solutions, unlike many others.
What is clear today is that dyslexia is most definitely a superpower that has propelled my career, as it has done for many others, including famous actors, musicians, entrepreneurs, inventors, sporting celebrities and scientists. What is sad though is that we have failed to dispel the stigma attached to dyslexia and ‘thinking differently’.
When I see reference made to people ‘suffering’ from dyslexia’ (though I clearly understand the challenges that it presents) I disagree – preferring to think of it as a ‘blessing’. While the education sector refers to ‘special educational needs’, we prefer to say that our pupils have ‘unique learning profiles’. It’s perhaps ironic that another term often used to describe dyslexia is ‘word blindness’, yet it is the use of positive words and language that is the first step to start to change the mindset and allow people to ‘see’ what a gift it can be.
“Our mission is that all of our pupils will progress on into further or higher education or into employment and so far, we have been able to achieve this”
Being dyslexic means that you have a nervous system that works differently and there are remarkable advantages to having a brain that works in this way. As the Founder of Cavendish Education – a rapidly growing family of 12 schools for pupils with unique learning profiles – I see a vital part of my role as trying to re-address these misconceptions in our society. Our mission is that all of our pupils will progress on into further or higher education or into employment and so far, since inception in 2013, we have been able to achieve this.
I see no reason why any of our pupils cannot maintain this fabulous outcome. This is what we call the 4Cs. We start early and equip our young people with bags of ‘confidence’ in a ‘creative’ way so that they leave us as ‘competent’ individuals who are full of ‘character’. It is no surprise that we are seeing record applications for places at our schools.
The educational pathway for our pupils may not be linear and equally, the gifts that our pupils have are also unique. For Einstein, it was physics; for Disney, it was art; for Branson, it was business. As such, what we do know is that the narrow and straight-jacketed mainstream education system does not work for our pupils.
At Cavendish Education, we are passionate in the belief that learning differences should not be a barrier to our pupils’ success or to their future careers. Our unique schools carefully provide an academic and pastoral experience in a mainstream-style setting, but with specialist support to enable young people to succeed.
The extraordinary stories of our pupils speak for themselves. I am constantly blown away by what these young people can do; they are so talented and we are just giving them a window to show the world how much they can achieve. Every day they inspire me and my staff. They are blessed with the ability to ‘think differently’ and we are blessed to work with them.
* Cavendish Education opened two new Prep Schools this September – Abingdon House Prep in South Kensington and Burlington House School in Fulham.
Further reading: How art therapy can help children with SEN
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