The Creative Mentors Foundation is a charity that helps students at school with learning differences to engage successfully with the educational opportunities they are offered in the areas of art, design, music and drama. This includes students with dyslexia, dyspraxia, aspergers/autism and ADHD.

We believe that helping students in these areas of the curriculum, where they can do exceptionally well, leads to greater self-esteem and confidence. In turn, this can promote higher levels of achievement in other subject areas and in their lives beyond school.

Our approach is to provide mentors to work in schools within the creative areas of the curriculum. All our mentors have succeeded to postgraduate level in either art and design, or music and drama, and are themselves dyslexic and/or dyspraxic. We believe this experience enables them to have empathy towards the students we are aiming to help and an intuitive understanding of the difficulties they face.

The facts

People with dyslexia struggle with many academic tasks at school such as reading and writing.
Uta Frith (1997), Margaret Snowling (1997), Amanda Kirby (1999), Tilly Mortimore (2003) and Liz Du Pre, Dorothy Gilroy and Tim Miles (2008).

Failing and or struggling with academic tasks can do enormous harm to students’ self-esteem, which in turn negatively affects their learning experiences.
McLoughlin et al (1994).

There is a well-established link between some types of dyslexia and creativity.
Maryanne Wolf (2007), John Everatt, Beverley Steffert and Ian Smythe (1999).

Acknowledgment and praise from peers and teachers can positively affect self-esteem.
Alexander‐Passe (2006).


Continue reading about our Aims and Methods.