About Me
My background & why I developed these materials
My name is Angela and I currently live in Spain on the sunny Costa Blanca, although my heart will always belong to beautiful Cornwall (UK) where I was born and grew up - I still return home when I can at least once a year.
Teaching has always been my love and job and after 20 years of classroom teaching, (Infant/Junior) I finally specialised in the teaching and assessing of Dyslexic and or Dyspraxic0 children and adults. I was the first to design and publish 7 childrens’ workbooks and a teacher’s manual for children with lack of aptitude when learning to read. They were extremely well received by parents teachers and pupils both in the U.K. and abroad before the introduction of the prescriptive National Curriculum rendered them virtually obsolete in Britain but still used widely abroad for teaching English. I then retired from mainstream teaching and set up my own consultancy in West London before retiring to Spain, where I worked part time at Mar Azule, a small but wonderful English/Spanish school tailored to pupils individual needs and talents. It was a wonderfully happy way to ease into retirement. I retain links to some of those pupils and teachers to this very day.
Appalled at the damage incurred by Covid to childrens’ chances, (The ability to read is the key to success in all other subjects and life in general) I decided to reintroduce my books in the form of this website. The idea is that people are able to use the content I have developed throughout the years for free - although people can donate to help support the costs of the website etc. The site will be adapted and added to as time progresses and I will attempt to answer as many questions as possible and take on board any suggestions.
This has been a huge undertaking and could not have been achieved without the help of a great friend who wishes to remain anonymous.
What I LIke
My favourite places are around the Penzance area and include St. Michael’s Mount (off Marazion) Lands End, St Ives, Mousehole, the Helford river area and The Eden Project near St Austell where I was born. One holiday was spent on Bryer, the Isles of Scilly, another in Wales, Scotland and the Lake District.
As you would expect of an almost 80 year old, I have gathered and still maintains many friendships world wide. These include some of my ex pupils, now with families of their own. Over the years I have lost touch with many good friends (as happens in life) although now I have reconnected through Facebook.
I enjoy a number of hobbies including writing,oil painting, gardening, reading and card making. I enjoy and have a wide taste in music and still love playing the piano.
Cats have always featured in my life and I have 3 cats at present and I maintain that along with help from my close friends and family, the cats have helped me through the last 10 years fighting colon cancer. Indeed I refer to my cats as my therapy cats!
Before my illness, my husband of 59 years and I, loved to travel. We spent 20 years caravaning each summer with friends in Europe. We visited friends in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Holland and reciprocated by entertaining them and showing them around London, Windsor and the Cotswolds. We have also visited Ireland (Dublin) and Northern Island around the Giant’s Causeway too.
When one of my nephews was getting married, David and I travelled to attend the ceremony in Auckland, New Zealand and then stayed with my sister in Wellington - before touring the South Island. On route we stayed with a niece and great nieces in Dubai and met with our Chinese friend who travelled from Sichuan Province to meet us in Hong Kong. We returned via Singapore and Germany.
We attended a ballet at the Sydney Opera House (Australia) and have also visited America several times and Canada (The Rocky Mountains) and travelled coast to coast on the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Above is a photograph of my father Thomas George Harris who was born in 1908 at Carn Brea Cornwall. He was left handed and with hindsight was fairly severely dyslexic. In those days the codition was unknown and as a result he was severely punished and often had his knuckles hit by the teacher with a ruler .