For any child, concentrating on their school work can be really tough. Engaging with a subject and understanding the content can be even harder for anyone who struggles in school, where the learning experience generally comes from what many see as dry text books.
Rossie Stone found schoolwork a real problem and wishes he had been able to articulate the problem better when he was studying. He found it difficult to read and absorb information from the usual text books, and as a result he fell behind and ended up at the bottom of his class in both Primary and Secondary school.
While still at school he began experimenting with his own comics and characters, with the focus on entertaining the reader while learning. This made a huge difference to his results, boosting at least one grade from D to A, with significant improvements to his other subjects and giving him the confidence and self-esteem that he lacked previously.
Now he has turned his hand to making this a reality for other school children with Dekko Comics, a series of educational comic books designed to engage students in their learning. Using fun and often absurd characters throughout the stories, they communicate educational information whilst making them an entertaining visual alternative to learning and revising using conventional means. He is keen to point out that the comic books are a resource, not a replacement for teachers.
Rossie has successfully raised over £13,000 to get the project off the ground and create 24 new comics which will be published in August/September 2016. And he hasn’t done this without the approval of some of the harshest critics – the children themselves, so five schools have validated the work so far: Torrance Primary School, Blackfriars Primary School, Hawick High School, The High School of Glasgow and the High School of Glasgow Jr School. The reaction from the pupils has been overwhelmingly positive, with excellent feedback on the effectiveness and engaging nature of the comics.
A teacher at Blackfriars Primary observed the effects of the comics on his pupils:
“Fantastic resource! The kids were able to recite the contents of the comic back to me months later… stimulating, engaging resource…”
A quote from a parent:
“I would certainly consider buying these for my own children and would recommend them to others.”
A quote from a pupil:
“I enjoyed it very much and I never got bored of it!”
Funding the initial production now means that Dekko Comics will be available from bookshops, comic shops and online. You can also find out more at www.dekkocomics.com