Categories: News

Teacher to use scholarship funds to develop apps for dyslexic students

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1923" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;SND21-wk3-AMP&lowbar;Scholarship-Charles&lowbar;Leota1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND21-wk3-AMP Scholarship-Charles Leota1" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"204" &sol;>Secondary school teacher&comma; Charles Leota &lpar;35&comma; Bay of Plenty&rpar;&comma; has been named as a 2015 AMP Scholarship recipient&period; He will use his &dollar;10&comma;000 Scholarship money to develop free apps to help dyslexic students achieve in school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The scholarship was awarded at the AMP Scholarships National Awards evening held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum last week&period; The judges included&colon; Dame Rosanne Meo &lpar;DNZM&rpar;&comma; clinical psychologist Dr Jane Magnusson&comma; 2014 AMP Scholarship recipient and founding trustee of PINC &amp&semi; STEEL Lou James&comma; 42 Below co-founder Justine Troy and Image Centre Group executive director Mike Hutcheson&comma; as well as AMP&&num;8217&semi;s GM HR Shaun Phillip and COO Kevin Bouchier&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Leota taught himself how to code in 2012&comma; by coding a school diary app in his own time at night after school to find out why his students failed to use their homework diaries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A few years later&comma; one of his students was dyslexic and finding exams particularly hard&period; He coded an app that allowed the student to submit NCEA exams via a Text to Speech app on a laptop&period; He has now started coding a phone app that allows students to write&sol;submit essays using acronyms as a template&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There are more than 70&comma;000 school children with dyslexia and I want to help families who don&&num;8217&semi;t qualify for special support for their dyslexic child and need other help to get through school&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Leota says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chief customer officer at AMP Jeff Ruscoe&comma; says&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Not only has Charles pursued his own goals&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;s also shown his students what hard work and commitment can achieve&comma; not to mention the difference he is making in the lives of families with dyslexic children and the children themselves&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The AMP Scholarship recipients show just where a great Kiwi &&num;8216&semi;can do&&num;8217&semi; attitude can take you&comma; no matter what your &&num;8216&semi;thing&&num;8217&semi;&period; Each year&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re incredibly impressed by the willingness recipients have to push their personal limits and to push barriers in order to succeed&period; This year is no exception and we praise the courage&comma; passion&comma; determination and commitment of all who applied for the scholarships&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a rewarding feeling to give something back to New Zealanders showing such great Kiwi talent&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since 1998 AMP has dedicated more than &dollar;2&period;2 million towards helping over 190 everyday Kiwis do their thing&period; For more information&comma; visit <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;doyourthing&period;co&period;nz" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">doyourthing&period;co&period;nz<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Rosie Clarke

Rosie is the managing editor here at Multimedia Pty Ltd, working across School News New Zealand and School News Australia. She has spent 10+ years in B2B journalism, and has spent some time over the last couple of years teaching as a sessional academic. Feel free to contact her at any time with editorial or magazine content enquiries.

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