The director of the Reading Clinic will be stepping down after 20 years at the helm of the learning disability centre.

Dr. Janet Kemp will remain at the Pembroke clinic as a Trustee, as well as maintaining a private practice, but day-to-day operations will be handed over to new director Dr. Julie Dunstan on September 1.

Dr. Kemp, an educational and school psychologist with 22 years of total service to the Reading Clinic, has overseen all testing, tutoring and outreach programmes during her time as director. She has also been responsible for assessing children and adults referred to the Clinic for suspected learning difficulties.

She has liaised with parents and schools, provided workshops and advocated for the needs of students and employees with learning disabilities.

Dr. Kemp told The Royal Gazette that she now plans to devote her time to fund-raising on behalf of students needing specialised schooling.

"I plan to initiate a couple of projects, one of which is the creation of a scholarship fund for students with learning disabilities so that they can attend specialised schools abroad after they have exhausted the local resources," she said.

"I am hoping to enlist the support of parents whose children have benefited from specialised schooling and who want to help others have the opportunities that they were fortunate enough to be able to provide for their own children."

When Dr. Kemp became director of the Reading Clinic in 1989, it served roughly 25 children. Twenty years later, the Reading Clinic has its own facility on Serpentine Road, tutors up to 80 students a year — many of whom receive financial assistance — and offers outreach programmes in both reading and math.

Dr. Kemp estimates that she herself has helped "about 1,000" children in her 22 years of service.

The Reading Clinic is hosting a special event on June 19 to celebrate Dr. Kemp's achievements. If anyone would like to attend, including former students and their parents, please contact Gill Ramsdale at 292-3938 or gr@ibl.bm.