DAHIT

Allerton Grange is a resourced school for deaf and hearing impaired children. Children are taxied in from all over the city if they need more support than could be offered in their local mainstream school. Many of the children are bilingual using both English and British Sign Language (BSL)in their everyday life. We have a bilingual policy which develops the use and understanding of both languages, as well using the languages to access the mainstream curriculum.

The staff team is made up of different roles to facilitate this access:

Teachers of the Deaf (ToD's)

They are qualified teachers who are additionally qualified as teachers of the deaf. They work in close liaison with mainstream colleagues, They are responsible for ensuring Deaf pupils learn and achieve their potential within mainstream inclusive settings. They work in mainstream and withdrawal lessons in base.

Communication Support Workers (CSW's)

CSW's are training or qualified in the educational use of British Sign Language (BSL) .

They support the deaf pupils in most mainstream situations by interpreting/ note-taking or other methods.

Deaf Instructors (DI's)

A Deaf adult trained or being trained to be an adult linguistic, cultural deaf role model, teach B.S.L. to Deaf and Hearing pupils and hearing colleagues and support deaf pupils across age of base and mainstream lessons.

Curriculum

Deaf students follow the same curriculum as their hearing peers depending on their individual abilities and needs. While some students are in mainstream for most of the curriculum, some students need additional support in base especially with their English which many deaf children learn as a second language. Many deaf students struggle with their literacy as BSL has a different structure to English and no written form, so unlike other bilinguals their skills in their first language cannot be transferred into their second language.

Other students have discrete lessons in base such as Life Skills and Deaf Drama and PSE which covers a variety of subjects.