Whilst many of the world’s most influential thinkers are dyslexic – Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Richard Branson among them – education systems around the world aren’t designed to support the way dyslexic children learn.

Made by Dyslexia, a charity led by dyslexics, found that only 1 in 10 teachers globally have a good understanding of the strengths associated with dyslexia and Dyslexic Thinking.

Our brief was to highlight Made By Dyslexia’s mission to reshape school learning systems and empower young dyslexics, in the face of existing one-size-fits-all approaches to teaching and learning. We launched before a Dec 2nd reading in UK parliament to make teacher training and dyslexia screening mandatory.

In our film, we show how dyslexic school kids are made to feel like square pegs trapped in a world of round holes.

Starting off within the school system, we see a hole within a desk, holes in educational equipment, in a protractor, a roll of sticky tape, a cutting board - an entire learning system filled with round holes. As we move through these series of simple graphic images, a voiceover challenges the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning, posing a different kind of lesson, asking the viewer to imagine how it feels to be a square peg in an education system that seems full of round holes.

In addition to simply educating audiences and breaking down misconceptions around Dyslexic Thinking, Made by Dyslexia is calling upon schools across the world to allow their teachers to Take A Day to Learn Dyslexia and upskill using the free online training offered in partnership with Microsoft.

The film was the next part of the Learn Dyslexia campaign which launched in the build-up to a 2 December reading in UK Parliament on making teacher training and dyslexia screening mandatory.

The powerful message present in Square Pegs informed governments globally that we need to reshape education to fit our most gifted thinkers. It formed part of a short, sharp agitation campaign within the UK targeting all members of the government and shadow cabinet, as well as a broader global campaign.