Each year, Dyslexia Canada’s Educational Excellence Awards recognize individuals making a meaningful difference in the lives of students with dyslexia. These awards celebrate educators who embrace evidence-based practices, prioritize early identification, and work tirelessly to ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn to read.
When Kathryn Byrne and Lia Ciarallo of the Multidisciplinary Team at Kingsdale Academy in the Lester B. Pearson School Board in suburban Montreal, Quebec, were named 2025 Educational Excellence Award winners by Dyslexia Canada, it was a moment that reflected years of dedicated work toward one shared goal: helping every student learn to read. Their journey wasn’t just a curriculum shift; it was a movement built on evidence-based practice, teacher collaboration, and a deep personal commitment to literacy.
Kingsdale Academy is a bilingual elementary school that serves a diverse population of students from pre-K to grade 6. What makes Kingsdale unique is, as with all schools in the Lester B Pearson School Board, it is committed to full inclusion: students with autism, learning disabilities, and other support needs all learn in the same classrooms with appropriate supports. That inclusive philosophy made it clear to Kathryn and Lia that every student needed the best start possible in literacy.
Lia, a grade 1 teacher and the school’s literacy specialist, recalls her turning point vividly. After returning to school post-COVID, she was shocked to find her grade 3 students unable to read. “I realized I didn’t actually know how to teach reading,” she says. That revelation sparked a journey into the science of reading, supported by her school’s speech-language pathologist and eventually deepened by a trip to a literacy conference in Florida.
Kathryn’s journey began years earlier, starting in Ontario classrooms where she too felt ill-equipped to support struggling readers. Her professional path, from classroom teacher to early literacy consultant to principal, was influenced by her own child’s dyslexia diagnosis. “Even as educators who read to our kids every night, our son needed explicit, systematic instruction to learn to read,” Kathryn shares. That personal experience reinforced her professional conviction: every child needs access to structured literacy.
Together, Lia and Kathryn built a literacy model that embedded best practices into the school culture. Kathryn created a part-time literacy specialist position for Lia, ensuring she could mentor colleagues, model lessons, and manage student assessments. With teacher buy-in growing, they created dedicated daily literacy blocks, trained all support staff (including more than a dozen integration aides), and used data to form small instructional groups.
Their tool of choice was UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute), adapted for kindergarten in a way that honoured Quebec’s play-based curriculum while setting students up for success in grade 1. “This year’s grade 1 students came in already knowing their letter sounds,” Lia beams. “It made such a difference.”
Both educators emphasize that this isn’t a top-down initiative, it’s a team effort. “You can’t just tell teachers to stop what they’re doing and figure out something new alone,” says Kathryn. “You need to support them, model it, and make it easy to adopt.”
Lia adds, “It’s about empowering everyone. I’m not the keeper of all the knowledge. It’s about sharing it.”
The results are clear: better readers, more confident teachers, and a school community united around the belief that every child can succeed with the right support.
Dyslexia Canada is honoured to present the Multidisciplinary Team at Kingsdale Academy with a 2025 Educational Excellence award. Their innovation and commitment to their students have provided a positive learning environment for their peers and have fostered a deeper connection with families.