Jamie Oliver is tackling the school system yet again but far from the cafeteria this time
Jamie Oliver is opening up about his own health battles ahead of launching a new campaign, this time focusing on books instead of meals. The famed chef and childhood nutrition champion, who transformed school dining in the 2000s, is making a foray back into schools as part of a forthcoming Channel 4 documentary – but he’s staying away from the lunch queues.
Instead, Oliver is aiming to help kids grappling with dyslexia, a challenge he knows all too well from his own academic and adult struggles. Opening up to The Sun, Oliver explained: “It’s no secret I struggled at school – but I was one of the lucky ones. I knew I wanted to be a chef so had somewhere to go, catering school, where I could thrive. The kitchen saved me.”
His new programme, set to air later this year, intends to uncover ways to better support neurodiverse students in schools and to assess how educational success is measured today, while also pressuring the Government for reforms. Jamie has previously been open about his dyslexia diagnosis after leaving school with just two GCSEs, and with nearly 30 cookbooks and a children’s book, the chef explained how he writes to accommodate his difficulty.
In a chat with the BBC, Jamie revealed: “I wrote most of my stuff on a dictaphone, just record it. It’s nice to buddy up with someone, whether it’s Mum or Dad, or a friend. Just to bounce stuff off of. I love using stickies, colour-coded stickies. I like to visualise. I like to see things, so stick them up. Simple stories, think about characters. Pull a face you like the look of off the internet, put it up there.
“Build up like texture and start seeing a world and you can even get pictures of the world or a wood, or a place. And then, from that you can start piecing it all together like a little jigsaw puzzle. And then where you struggle, just ask for help. If you’re dyslexic, don’t be afraid to ask for help because you’ve got superpowers. You’ve got an incredible imagination.”
The globally renowned chef spent most of his primary school years in special needs classrooms due to his struggles with reading and writing, emphasising that neither he nor his school identified his learning difficulty. Unlike learning disabilities or other academic challenges, dyslexia doesn’t impact intelligence and typically only causes problems with letters such as reading, writing and spelling.
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Dyslexia can lead individuals to jumble the order of letters in words or confuse letters, such as writing ‘b’ instead of ‘d’. While most patients comprehend information perfectly when delivered verbally, reading or writing it can cause difficulties and confusion.
Slow reading and writing, along with poor or inconsistent spelling, are often the most significant signs of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a lifelong condition, but targeted support can greatly enhance an individual’s experience at school and work.
Most symptoms become noticeable when children begin learning to read or write, but other warning signs can emerge even earlier. Vasilii Kiselev, CEO and co-founder of Legacy Online School, pointed out that some of the earliest, and often overlooked, warning signs of dyslexia include struggling to learn or memorise nursery rhymes or having trouble with rhythm in general.
Children may also avoid reading for themselves or singing the alphabet, despite otherwise enjoying stories and singing. People with dyslexia often have difficulty with directions, confusing ‘up’ and ‘down’, or experiencing spatial awareness issues. Younger children may struggle to follow multi-step instructions as they can become overwhelmed with the information or find it difficult to follow the exact sequence of tasks.
According to the NHS, schools can provide additional support to dyslexic children through their special educational needs co-ordinator or may require a comprehensive evaluation from a specialist. Adults wishing to be assessed for dyslexia should reach out to a local or national dyslexia association for guidance.