Strand Up for Neurodiversity

Like many students at Tanglin, Charlotte (Year 13) and Harriet (Year 11) are often encouraged to develop civic mindedness through community causes. But why did they decide to team up and organise a non uniform day for Neurodiversity Day last school term? We catch up with the sisters to find out more.

At Tanglin, every effort is made to create a supportive and inclusive environment for neurodiverse students like Charlotte and Harriet. Its mission is to enable every student to succeed in life by helping them optimise their strengths and overcome challenges, no matter what their learning differences are.

A SUPPORTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Harriet said, “We have been incredibly privileged to have the Learning Support team support us all this time. They help us understand our strengths to overcome our challenges and guide us with targeted learning strategies. But having said that, although we are both dyslexics, the challenges we each encounter and deal with are different. This made us realise that if we could help more people in the community understand the different ways that individuals experience and interact with the world around them, it will create a more supportive and inclusive environment for everyone.”

With the seed of action now taking root in their minds, the sisters were further motivated by Richard Branson’s post on Dyslexia Awareness Month that takes place annually in October. His purpose was to write a message of hope for the future and encourage the world to support dyslexics so they can reach their full potential.

Charlotte elaborated, “Successful people like Richard Branson, who is also dyslexic, really inspire us. They show us that it’s not the end of the world when you have dyslexia or a neurodevelopmental difference, and we want to share this with the Tanglin community.’

RALLYING THE COMMUNITY

To begin the process, the sisters approached Ms Gillian Sams who is also the Head of Learning Support at Senior School. Ms Sams was naturally happy to support them, because it fitted really well with ongoing Learning Support efforts to promote neurodiversity and celebrate individual profiles and achievement, so they began planning in earnest. They were also running against time since school would be out for two weeks during the October mid-term break.

With Ms Sams’ help, they set the event date on 29 October, created a presentation on dyslexia, and conceptualised a non uniform day where Senior School students could donate $2 to the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) and wear the colour that represents dyslexia - red. Although Charlotte and Harriet only had a short time to prepare, their event went off without a hitch. In fact, it was so popular that the sisters had emails from parents and people in Infant and Junior School requesting that the event be extended across the entire community in future.

Charlotte said, “It was really heartwarming to hear from so many people. Tanglin is a big school and we had to follow COVID-19 restrictions, so we faced the challenge of spreading our message, but I think it worked well in the end!” ■

Tanglin’s neurodiversity efforts continue with regular staff training, communication from the Learning Support team to teachers as well as individual planning and support for students who require this.

“We faced the challenge of spreading our message, but I think it worked well in the end! ”