Dyslexic children who start secondary school lagging behind classmates can be helped to catch up with "proper teaching", campaigners say.

Charity Xtraordinary People claims thousands of primary pupils go undiagnosed each year, with many of them branded disruptive low-achievers.

A BBC documentary tonight shows the charity working with 11- and 12-year-olds who arrived at Walworth School, Elephant and Castle, with reading ages as low as six.

Headteacher Elizabeth Hanham said it was "disgraceful" so many children had been allowed to go through primary school without learning to read.

"It's useless them coming to secondary school without being able to read," she said.

After intensive sessions using techniques such as the back-to-basics reading method synthetic phonics, their average reading ages jumped by two years in just two terms.

Some children, including the most disruptive, improved by as much as five years and one pupil accelerated three years after just 13 hours of remedial teaching.

Xtraordinary People was invited to train the Walworth teachers by Southwark council.

Founder Kate Griggs said: "The system is letting our children down badly."

She said diagnostic teaching practised by dyslexia experts had been around for decades but was not used enough by schools.

It was "no miracle cure, just proper teaching", she added.

• Real Story: The Teacher Squad is on BBC1 at 7pm.

December 13, 2006

With many thanks to the excellent Daily Mail.