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Registered charity
no. 1013941
July. 08
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| Jocelyn Marchington | |||||||||||||||||||
| Clips from his Motion Graphics project at Chelsea College of Art. His aim is to promote greater awareness and understanding of dyslexia, using dyslexics' own descriptions of their experience. It is a multimedia presentation. | |||||||||||||||||||
News of Members |
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| " The intention is to provide a space which enables the visitor to see the influence of changes that are taking place on this planet and the corresponding effect/response that are occurring as a result in the above three sections- the changes to art expressed in 3-D sculpture, and painting, photography and drawing to record ideas for possible solution. | |||||||||||||||||||
| " the contortions architecture is having to perform to cope with the carbon factor, using natural stones and other such organic material to reduce heat loss at any reasonable cost/efficiency - the ingenuity that is being demanded, is fierce and competitive. | |||||||||||||||||||
| " design is being forced in many bizarre directions in order to cope with the climate conditions: the strength of materials specified, and not least the cost of research to establish specifies' requirements and satisfied them with the cost efficient product." | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Jane Elson has won a Kings Cross New Writing Award for her
play about young offenders and dyslexics: “Leonardo stole my crayon”
There will be a reading at Courtyard Theatre, Thursday 10th July
at 1.30pm, refreshments at 2.30. Ring her for details: 0207 485 0145. |
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| Dani Knight has been conducting workshops and exhibitions for ‘Create to Learn’ and will be teaching at Invictor School and carrying out another workshop there on the same theme of encouraging creativity, explorng new ideas on 11th July. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Dani an alumni of the London College of Communication and represented ADT at last week’s conference on creativity there, to which we were invited. There were some interesting speakers including Baroness Estelle Morris of Yardley who said the creative industries are poised for rapid growth. Will the Government initiative really make a difference and turn talent into jobs ? Some pertinent comments were made on the difficulties involved in turning such good ideas into workable practice. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Emma Elliott’s book “How to Fly with Dyslexia” has been accepted for publication in the autumn. A collection of Fables about the “Duck and Dog” is also under way.. Watch out for reviews in the next Newsletter. Tom West has already given an encouraging one. Congratulations to her on completing such a monumental task ! | |||||||||||||||||||
| Robert O’Brien has been shortlisted for one of the four prizes at the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Opportunities |
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| DYSMING MONADYS We are looking for dyslexic POETS, WRITERs & FILMMAKERS Please email Lennie Varvarides dysthelexi@gmail.com TODAY ! Performance in Oct - Nov ‘08 For full submission details - |
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| www.misfitproductions.org | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Donald at ADO is looking for graphic designer / illustrator to design a cover for a book he is producing for the Civil Service and also a web site designer - | |||||||||||||||||||
| ado.dms@dial.pipex.com | |||||||||||||||||||
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| the New Scientist competition: Visions of the Future.
Readers were asked to send in their ideas of which technologies will
have the greatest impact on working life 50 years from now. If you
missed the submission date you may still get in to the ticket only
prize-giving evening hosted my Microsoft at London’s Science Museum
on Thurd. 26th June, starting at 7.30pm. A limited number of tickets will be given away. |
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| All the entries can also be seen on this web site, To apply register at | |||||||||||||||||||
| www.newscientist.com/visionsofthefuture | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Lynn Weddle invites you to an auction of prints in Angel
on Wednesday June 18th in aid of the Charlotte Miller Art
Project and Juconi, working with street children in the poverty
stricken port city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Prints from the likes of
Martin Parr. See web site Tel. Lynn at 7967 719 137. |
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| www.lynnweddle.com | |||||||||||||||||||
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Malcolm Ritchie
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| We have great sorrow in announcing the sad news of the recent death of our President, Malcolm, Lord Ritchie.. | |||||||||||||||||||
| He was a founder and guiding spirit to our Trust since its establishment as a charity in 1992. An inspirational teacher, he was also a guiding star to generations of boys at Brickwall House, later to change its name to Frewen College. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Many of the old boys came back to see him, sometimes years after they had left, (one, Adrian Peel, an architect from Canada only a few weeks before he died) to thank him for his help in setting them on the road to a successful career and a happy personal life. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Like all good teachers, Malcolm was not concerned with impressing the maximum load of second hand information on the boys, but in drawing out their own often deeply hidden talents and encouraging the development of skills they never dreamt they could master. At this he was brilliant, much helped by his interest in the theatre. | |||||||||||||||||||
| He was a highly skilled actor himself, but his most outstanding talent was production. When you saw a hesitant young figure stumbling on to the stage, seemingly hardly in control of his limbs or variable pitch voice, quite unable to read a script, it seemed impossible to believe he could turn into a Hamlet or Shylock, and yet in an amazingly short space of time such metamorphoses would occur. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Beijing
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Adrian Peel (see letter below)
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| The galvanising influence of the plays was felt throughout the school. In the Art rooms there was fierce competition for the honour of being the designer of the play's programme cover. And a vast quantity of energy was spent on designing sets, painting backcloths and flats. Boys in the carpentry shop were busy building props and structural features which were then pounced on by an enthusiastic band of budding artists armed with large tins of left over builders' paint, some of which inevitably ended up decorating the Art room floor and the artist himself. Everyone was involved. There was a place for even the most clumsy. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Neither was sport forgotten, although unco-ordinated
limbs made for enjoyable rather than professional performance. The
swimming pool was always a centre of vociferous activity. Malcolm
himself was an excellent tennis player and his presence was a permanent
feature of the Rye tennis tournament.
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| Canoeing and skateboarding were more popular with the boys. Science was encouraged by the appointment of an innovative young teacher and an interest in the natural world burgeoned in a beautiful landscape over which the boys ran or walked on long expeditions. | |||||||||||||||||||
| But nowhere was Malcolm's insight and confidence-building genius more needed and more greatly welcomed than in that group of pupils now labled “dyslexic”. | |||||||||||||||||||
| In the early 1960s, when even the word “dyslexia” was scarcely known in this country, he went to a series of talks given by a visiting lecturer from the USA, describing the research work on the subject being done there by Norman Geschwind. Could that provide the answer to a question which had long puzzled him - why was it that so many of his most intelligent pupils were unable to produce satisfactory written results in academic subjects ? Making this connection proved to be a crucial turning point in the school's history. | |||||||||||||||||||
| He set about gathering together a unique group of teachers who were interested in exploring these new ideas and finding ways to access young dyslexic minds. Their efforts were increasingly successful, and the school became respected as one of the first to specialise in meeting the challenge posed by dyslexics, thereby laying the foundations for its future development and success. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Soon, the boys were hearing about classical literature and even learning Greek and Latin from Molly Gardner. The remedial classes, headed by Mary Thomas, were developing new techniques; one-to -one teaching taking place as often as possible, A hitherto unimaginable “A” Level was recorded. Entrances to Art Colleges and Further Education became possible. For the young dyslexics it was a time to smile. They could forget their harrowing experience at previous schools and elsewhere. Life had suddenly become worth living. | |||||||||||||||||||
| To initiate all this was a considerable achievement. In its own small way, it emulated the success of far grander schools. Though Malcolm himself would never have considered the comparison for a moment, his influence, albeit on a numerically smaller scale, was as significant as that of his own old Head Master, John Roxburgh, at Stowe. More significant in some ways, perhaps, as it gave hope and a chance to reach their true potential to those who had been written off as complete “no-hopers”. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Failures there were, of course. That can never be avoided. And to each individual who was too damaged to respond to rescue, Malcolm gave his fullest attention. Their problems weighed heavily on his mind. Lack of money was always a problem too. Only the strongest of characters can overcome such pressures. None the less, the over-riding atmosphere of the school was of lively optimism and positive growth. In the staffroom, through a cloud of now forbidden smoke, laughter prevailed. | |||||||||||||||||||
| The most self-effacing, self-deprecating of men, Malcolm's role in supporting the cause of dyslexics through the BDA and in the House of Lords never hit the headlines. Now, we believe, would be a good moment to pay tribute to his achievements. Your views and suggestions as to what form this could take would be very much appreciated. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Perhaps sponsorship could be sought to fund a scholarship, bursary or prize, in his name - aimed at encouraging potential theatrical talent maybe? We hope that Frewen College and the BDA will give this option serious consideration. | |||||||||||||||||||
| A memorial service is being arranged to take place in September. We will let you know further details and date when it is decided. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Most happily for ADT, Malcolm's son Rupert has taken over his father's role as President of the Trust. Both in his career as a teacher and in his interest in the theatre, it looks as though Rupert may be following in Malcolm's footsteps. He has all our best wishes. | |||||||||||||||||||
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S.P.
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| When architect Adrian Peel visited Malcolm at Winchelsea last September, it brought back “strong memories of Malcolm's benign influence” on school days “of 50 years ago”. He writes: “We talked about his English Literature classes, the annual Brickwall Christmas concert (Malcolm taught unforgettable four part vocal harmany to the carols and a fragment of J.S.Bach Oratorio}, and the annual Play - I was .lighting and stage manager,” [always a key role in Brickwall productions!] “He really was an exceptional man”. | |||||||||||||||||||
| “The time I spent at Brickwall nurtured the few visual abilities I was lucky to have in favour of almost all the other subjects such as Mathematics, History, Latin, and French... Although Geography and Geometry, with their visual logic, have always been easy for me, algebra and Languages remain a problem for me to this day. Towards the end of my schooldays my drawing and painting abilities were good enough to gain entrance into first year Architecture at the Jordanstone College of Art... where I discovered (with an enormous boost to my shaky self esteem) that my spatial and 3D understanding were well up among the best of the students theree. At one point in my second year I quietly providedd the schematic design for all 30 of my fellow students' projects within the 24 hour deadline, as well as for my own. | |||||||||||||||||||
| “I graduated and moved to Canada..and working for incredibly long hours [for one of the largest Architectural firms in Toronto] eventuallyearning the position of head designer with design responsibility for major projects in Cnada, China and the Middle East... finally achieved my professional ambition by forming Adrian Peel Architecture Inc. in 1986..retiring in 2006. During those years I personally designed everything from commercial and residential projects including 4 exotic palaces for members of the various royal families the Middle East).. . | |||||||||||||||||||
| “In what has become a very difficult and dangerous profession,...`i very deliberately nurtured an atmosphere of coopration rather than competition in my own office and with every other office worked - and there have been many of them...I am very glad to say that this approach has worked far more often than not. | |||||||||||||||||||
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