Impact on parents
The impact of the support offered to families at Moorfoot has been extensive, positively affecting families within and outwith the school’s catchment area. Not only has this impacted positively on the core family unit, it has in some cases extended to members of the wider family. Many parents and carers have been happy to share their experiences on how the school has helped them and how it has made a difference to family life. By learning to sign, they are able to communicate more effectively with their non-hearing child. Providing parents with further information on how deaf and hearing impaired pupils are being supported in school has been invaluable. In addition, offering BSL classes to parents, carers and family members have allowed for the development of language skills in using BSL. This will allow for effective communication between hearing and non-hearing family members, strengthening relationships and building confidence.
‘Putting on the Friday class with Paul and being able to come in and be a part of that in a friendly and open manner has been good.’
‘I can communicate with the children. I know what they’re saying now. We do practise at home and they help me out a little bit. I’m really keen to do Level 1 (BSL) and get better. The classes have definitely prompted me to do it. I don’t think I would have done if I hadn’t have had Paul teaching us at the start. He makes you feel a lot more relaxed and not quite so awkward.’
‘I have two deaf grandsons but only one comes to Moorfoot. By attending the BSL classes, I can communicate better with my grandson now and I notice that he isn’t frustrated in the way he used to be. Since (learning) the sign language, I can communicate – not all of the time but quite a lot and he has calmed a lot. I can see a big difference in him.’
In the following clips, parents share their experience on
how the school has supported them and their deaf child and others share their
experience of attending the school run BSL classes and the positive impact
these have had on the family as a whole.
Impact on pupils
Moorfoot Primary, Nursery Class and Garvel Deaf Centre is an
inclusive campus where all children interact freely with each other both in and
outwith the school. Inclusion is woven through all of the school’s values and
BSL plays a major role in connecting the values which underpin the ethos of the
school. Overall
pupils have a positive attitude towards all languages taught at Moorfoot/Garvel
and from a young age, value their importance in today’s society both locally
and beyond.
‘It’s good if all my friends are taught sign language in school, even my hearing friends because it’s easy for me to understand and it’s good for them because they can improve their sign language as well. I don’t want communication to be bad. I want communication to flow quite nicely for conversation.’ (Garvel pupil)
In the following clip, pupils from Moorfoot Primary and Garvel Deaf Centre share their experiences of language learning in school and explain why language learning is important.
Impact on staff
In both Moorfoot and Garvel, staff value the importance of
all language learning that takes place in the school. In order to support BSL
users in the mainstream school, staff members, whether beginners or
non-beginners upskill themselves in BSL in order to communicate effectively
with BSL using pupils. In addition to developing their own communication skills
and knowledge of deaf awareness, they successfully implement many strategies to
support the deaf or hearing-impaired learners in their classroom, ensuring all
needs are suitably met. Whilst Paul Tipling works at length with all pupils and
some parents, he provides support and training for staff to develop a working
knowledge of BSL in the school. Staff members from Moorfoot and Garvel work
closely together to ensure that all learners, both hearing and non-hearing are
confident and effective communicators in whichever language they use and are
encouraged to celebrate its usage at any opportunity at home, school and in the
community.
The following clips from Moorfoot and Garvel staff provide
further details on their roles in supporting hearing and non-hearing children
access the curriculum successfully.