Theo Paphitis | Helen Arkell

Theo Paphitis Charitable Trust Clay Shoot 2024

Fundraising Success at Theo Paphitis Charitable Trust Clay Shoot 2024

On Tuesday, June 25th, 2024, our fundraising team had the pleasure of attending the Theo Paphitis Charitable Trust Clay Shoot 2024, a fantastic event dedicated to raising vital funds for several worthy causes, including Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity, British Dyslexia Association, CoppaFeel!, and Starlight Children’s Foundation UK.

The event was a success, bringing together members of the Theo Paphitis Retail Group to support all 4 charities. The collective enthusiasm and generosity raised around £60,000! This amazing total will be shared between the charities, including Helen Arkell, helping us to continue our essential work in changing and improving the lives of people with dyslexia.

We want to say a big thank you to everyone at the Theo Paphitis Charitable Trust for their amazing support and dedication. It was such a memorable and impactful day.

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-18T09:24:33+01:00July 18th, 2024|Fundraising news, Latest news|0 Comments

CEO blog Theo Paphitis, Buckingham Uni, Black Friday … and Teddy Edward is a very appealing bear

There’s lots to tell you this week, so I’ll do it in quick chunks:

This week we were delighted to announce the launch of the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary in partnership with Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity, to provide funding for State School teachers and teaching assistants around the UK to receive free training from our expert team. It’s brilliant that someone like Theo is using his high profile to raise awareness (and funds) to benefit people with dyslexia. Thank you, Theo! We have started working with 50 State School teachers already.
I was delighted to join up with the guys at Surrey Care Trust on Tuesday, together with our Tory, to speak with their team about all things dyslexia. They are doing great things, working with volunteers to equip vulnerable people with the skills and confidence they need to change their lives. Hopefully a bit more knowledge of dyslexia will be of help to them when supporting their people.
On Thursday I had the pleasure of working with the team at the University of Buckingham, where they are already supporting their students brilliantly, and they want to particularly shine the spotlight on dyslexia. Sarah Myhill is the guiding light on this initiative, excellently supported by Roger Jefcoate, who is also a wonderful advocate of our charity.
We haven’t done it before, but this year we’ve entered into the Black Friday spirit, by launching a pre-Christmas sale on online assessments for adults. Since the pandemic, there have been many changes in the dyslexia field, one of which has been to enable certain assessments to be undertaken online with the same validity as those conducted in-person. We have a brilliant team of online assessors, ready and waiting to help adults with dyslexia in this way (as well as students attending FE/University). Sometimes we assume in-person is always best in life, but in our experience these online assessments can be brilliant, provided the individual’s circumstances are conducive (and they have access to a device, and internet).
This year we have provided support to more people with dyslexia than ever before, but there’s so much more we want to do, simply because we are inundated with requests for help. For that reason, we have launched our Christmas Appeal this week. Any contribution, large or small, would be greatly appreciated. You can donate here, if you’d like to be part of our drive to help more people. Thank you so much!
Talking of appeals, we count ourselves as very lucky to have a very appealing little bear in our team. Teddy Edward particularly proved his worth this week, standing in for our Julie when she was under the weather on Wednesday. Profuse apologies if you got licked all over when you just came in to speak to us – rest assured he does that to everybody and it wasn’t just you. He manned the phones in his own way, but we can’t share photos as he was only wearing socks and a T-Shirt at the time (normal rules don’t apply to bears apparently).

Thank you for everything you do for this charity!

Andy

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:40:41+01:00November 30th, 2023|CEO blog|0 Comments

Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary – the power of working together

Theo Paphitis and the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity have this month, November 2023, launched the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary to provide funding for schools to offer free training to teachers and teaching assistants around the UK.

The response to the free training for primary and secondary state schools was incredible and all 50 spaces filled quickly.

Successful applicants are taking part in the charity’s 6-week online ‘Supporting Learners with Dyslexia’ course.

We are delighted that, thanks to Theo and his team, another 50 training spaces will be released in Spring 2024.

TV Dragon, retail entrepreneur and dyslexia champion, Theo Paphitis, commented: “Dyslexia has been a huge part of my life and shaped me into who I am, but school and coping with what I now understand to be undiagnosed dyslexia, was tough to deal with. To have had access to teachers and TAs who understood how to identify, and more importantly, how to help people like me deal positively with dyslexia would have been a game changer.

I hope that this Bursary will grow and grow and help many more with dyslexia in education, but also in the workplace going forward. That all the teacher spaces were snapped up within the hour shows the need for this bursary and support for those with dyslexia.”

The aim of the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary is to particularly support state schools where there are young people from low-income families, by giving them access to the expertise and guidance of Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity regarding the best ways to support young people with dyslexia.

Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity CEO, Andy Cook added: “Helen Arkell’s aim is to remove barriers to learning, employment and life for more and more people with dyslexia, regardless of ability to pay, and we are indebted to Theo Paphitis and Ryman for helping us to achieve this. The demand has been high for the online places with a waiting list already in place for the spring training spaces, showing the power of what we can do when we work together and offer the right support in the right places.”

Theo Paphitis and Andy Cook

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:40:50+01:00November 24th, 2023|Fundraising news|0 Comments

Launch of the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary

On behalf of all of us at Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity, I am absolutely thrilled to announce the launch of a new partnership with TV Dragon, Retail Entrepreneur and longstanding dyslexia champion Theo Paphitis and Ryman Retail Limited.

Together we will launch the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary, giving us the opportunity to offer free training to teachers and teaching assistants from state schools around the UK.

Starting with 50 free training spaces, the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary will enable the state school sector to take part in the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity’s six-week online Supporting Learners with Dyslexia course, free of charge for teachers or teaching assistants.

The aim of the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary is to particularly support state schools where there are young people from low-income families, by giving them access to the expertise and guidance of Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity regarding the best ways to support young people with dyslexia.

Theo Paphitis said: “I am delighted to create the Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary, supported by one of our key partners, the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity. Many have a story with dyslexia, either through their own story or someone close to them, and through this Bursary and further work in the dyslexia area we want to make sure that as many stories as possible are positive ones.”

Helen Arkell’s aim is to remove barriers to learning, employment and life for more and more people with dyslexia, regardless of ability to pay, and we are indebted to Theo Paphitis and Ryman for helping us to achieve this.

Andy Cook

CEO

*Please note: all 50 Theo Paphitis Dyslexia Bursary places have now been awarded.

Non bursary places are still available, but the normal fee will apply. Full details here.

Theo Paphitis and Andy Cook

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:42:11+01:00October 17th, 2023|Fundraising news|0 Comments

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