Following on from Matt Hancock’s words in Commons this week, more UK politicians are sharing their dyslexia experiences.

On Tuesday, the former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock MP wrote candidly in The Telegraph about his educational experience with dyslexia, and why it’s so important to make sure that we’re opening up the idea of dyslexia screening to every child in primary schools all over the country. He’s the driving force behind the Dyslexia Screening Bill, and he’s been calling on his fellow MPs to back what he calls a ‘vital’ reform to how we identify and support dyslexia in the UK today.

In addition to this, Mr. Hancock also spoke about the importance of making sure that educators are well-equipped to support students with literacy differences and create classroom and assessment environments that mean no student is at a disadvantage because of their dyslexia.

It’s a statement and a proposition that have led to a lot of cross-party support, and it’s garnering attention from all over the globe – but its also led to a number of parliamentary figures speaking out about their own experiences with dyslexia in education too.

Tom Hunt, MP for Ipswich since 2019, has also taken to the editorial to speak about how dyslexia has had an effect on his own educational experiences, and supporting the idea that reform is needed to ensure that all children with dyslexia have the condition identified and don’t ‘slip through the cracks’ in the UK education system.

“In my early years of school, I was made to repeat reception. None of the teachers really understood why I was so behind my peers, and why I could not quite keep up,” Mr. Hunt writes in The Ipswich Star. “I know how it feels to be the student who is struggling, and not progressing at the same speed as the rest of the class. Throughout primary school, I was lagging behind. I processed information differently to the other kids, and this was something my teachers weren’t able to recognise or cater to. I want to make sure that the next generation of primary school children are better understood and better supported.”

“This week in parliament, I cosponsored Matt Hancock’s Bill to improve screening for dyslexia. Matt Hancock, also an MP representing Suffolk residents, stood up for dyslexic students in the chamber, demanding that the education system does better by them in the future. This is a bill to improve the learning outcomes of future generations, to ensure every dyslexic child is given the right support to achieve academically, and that no student is left behind and misunderstood because of this learning disability.”

You find out more in Tom Hunt MP’s editorial for The Ipswich Star, and find out more about Matt Hancock MP’s proposed bill at The Independent.