Experiencing a Deaf School: By Eleanor

In February 2014 I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit a deaf school in London for 7 days. This was almost a milestone in my life because it meant two things:




 1. That I would be living with my cousin, his landlord and another flatmate in a house in London that I'd never been to before.


 2. That I had the exciting opportunity to visit, observe and learn from a deaf school, a school that promotes bilingual philosophy, meaning they teach BSL and English equally.




So, the time rolled around so much quicker than I expected, much like this whole PGCE course. I found myself on the train heading to London. Just to point out, I love London. Whether its intended or not, it has subtitles almost everywhere. On the train, on the tube, on the bus, I didn't have to worry about missing my stop because the electronic information boards reassured me every other minute, subtitling the tannoy for me. The bus stop outside of Kings Cross had writing, just to tell me that there would be a bus in literally 2 minutes of waiting (this is most definitely not the Norfolk Way).


 Wednesday morning I arrived at the school, unsure what to expect. It was a small school, much smaller than anything I had seen before. In the Nursery and Reception there was no more than 6 children in each with 1:1 staff and TAs as-well as the teachers. I almost worried myself into thinking there wouldn't be much to do with all this staff and support, how wrong was I?


 Looking around the school it was very clear how much they promoted and respected their bilingual philosophy, all the displays had English and BSL signs, a good majority of the staff were profoundly deaf themselves, all staff whether hearing or deaf could sign, BSL classes were highly advertised throughout the school. I'd never seen such a school where I could feel so involved and welcomed from day one. Every conversation I could be a part of whether I wanted to or not, there were no hidden agendas, no hidden or lost conversations.
  The children, the beautiful children using their hands to communicate and their open eyes innocently gazing, interpreting and communicating. Their voice, their language, a different world.

Stories were signed to the children, a different perspective, dramatic, intriguing and exciting, a story that could never be portrayed quite the same in English.
 The ones that wore hearing aids or Cochlear Implants quite often made their own little noises, some could talk quite clearly and others were just learning, making sense of their noises, their voice.


 My seven days at the deaf school went by just as quickly as they came. I learnt so much. I learnt about a world where deaf children could grow up and feel as valued and loved as mainstream children do. A world where they could be supported, taught visually, seeing the beauty in the movement of our hands rather than the sound of our voices. I learnt that telling them that I wore hearing aids just like some of them, I was automatically accepted.
I was no longer different, I was the same, the same, the same.

 “Deaf people can do anything, except hear.”

King Jordan (Former President of Gallaudet University)