By Dianne Craven
Pudsey Civic Hall was transformed into the third Yorkshire Dyslexia Festival on Saturday (5 July 2025).
The festival, organised by Yorkshire Rose Dyslexia (YRD), brought together the dyslexia community with speakers, and a range of exhibitors.
The emphasis was on enabling neuro-diverse people of all ages, and specifically school children, reach their full potential.
The event featured talks on dyslexia in education and sensory needs. Speakers included Caroline Bateman, who focused on the free/affordable technologies and strategies to enable students overcoming various barriers to attainment.
Another speaker was Justin Honey-Jones. Justin shared in his inspiring journey from struggling with dyslexia at school to becoming the UK’s only dyslexic paramedic trainer, passionately saving lives and empowering future paramedics.
Lee Hart, co-chair of YRD, said: “We really want the festival to be a celebration of dyslexia and other neuro conditions.
“Together we want to create a dyslexic friendly society. Not only can we help with dyslexia, but we can also help dyscalculia and dyspraxia.”
Lee added that one in two prison inmates have dyslexia, but the problems often being in school because one in 10 children has dyslexia, which is not properly diagnosed or understood.
He pointed out that schools are failing (for a variety of reasons) to support children with dyslexia.
However, YRD has recently suffered a massive blow as the very successful Touch Typing Club, based on Fulneck School, had to close due to the actual closure of the school. At the time of writing, it is unclear as to the future of the club.
One parent, with two dyslexic children, aged seven and ten, said they had only found out about the festival while they were trying to obtain advice, information, and support.
They went onto say that Yorkshire Rose Dyslexia had made such a difference. More importantly, the day was a breeze as they liked the venue, which was easy to reach, and had good parking.
They also felt the venue was a calm and friendly environment for everyone. (The children loved playing with some of the sensory toys, including a large piece jigsaw puzzle.)
Other exhibitors included Toe by Toe. The founder, Frank Cowling stated that his reading approach using phonics was just one of several methods that could help anyone overcome Dyslexia.
His approach was one that would suit most learners, irrespective of their learning styles. The method has been used all around the world, but Frank stated that Ireland was at the top of league when it comes to supporting neuro diverse people.
Getting in touch with YRD
- Web: yrd.org.uk.
- Email: info@yrd.org.uk.
- Telephone: 0113 865 2240.
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