The Winchester School –is one of Dubai’s most respected and sought-after private schools. It is also part of GEMS Education (Global Education Management Systems) – the world’s largest operator of K-12 schools with a network of over 70 establishments.

Winchester student roll exceeds 3000 pupils, and more than a hundred students have been identified to have special educational needs. These range from physical disabilities to dyslexia, autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.  Winchester School aims to embrace every student’s needs. Read and Write by Ed tech has been highly useful for these students with special needs.

The introduction of Texthelp’s Read&Write software has been overseen by Pallavi Mallick, Head of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Pallavi recommended introducing Read&Write at Jebel Ali after encountering it at other schools in the GEMS Education network. The software has received a lot of positive reactions from students, teachers and parents. The school has almost all primary school teachers educated in using the application, as of today, and Pavali hopes that these benefits will extend to students of the age of 16. Additionally, the app is installed in almost all classroom computers. The school is also planning on issuing a license for students to be able to download the application on their personal computers.

The features of Texthelp include text to speech, multiple language support, picture dictionary, spell check and prediction to build confidence and fluency in students. The application has received so much positive reaction from parents with Joyce Rodriguez stating “We have noticed that our daughter’s reading skills have been improved. There is a lot of improvement in her creating writing skills too. She includes more variety of words and increases her vocabulary skills.”

Others have said:

“It helps my son to learn new words and assists him to understand his mistakes and to correct them.” Alifa (mother of year 11 boy)

“This program helps my daughter to research new words and guides her with spelling too as this is an area of weakness for her. This enhances Vishali’s creative writing skills as she can find different word instead of overusing the same and she is able to work independently.” Sivadass (father of year 10 girl)

Academic success is something a lot of students want, regardless of any disabilities or complications they may have. With the help of technology, we are able to grant it to those who would otherwise not be able to achieve their dreams.