Congratulating Dr Neville Brown, Britain's oldest teacher

Motion Text

That this House congratulates Dr Neville Brown, Britain's oldest teacher, on celebrating his 90th birthday, and on more than 60 years in education; the House recognises Dr Brown's achievement, as the founder of Maple Hayes Dyslexia School in Lichfield, in pioneering a morphological approach to teaching reading—that is to say, an approach that focuses on the structure and meaning of words, as opposed to phonics, which focuses on the sounds of words; recognises that Dr Brown's ground-breaking approach has helped many pupils who were previously unable to write to achieve academic success; and amplifies his call for a review of Britain's reliance on phonics-based teaching and the need for an inclusive approach that works for all children.