Norwood Green Junior School – Centre for the Deaf
Welcome to our Centre for the
Deaf
Norwood Green
Junior School provides the junior provision for Hounslow for deaf
children with mainly severe to profound levels of deafness. The
centre is well established, having been attached to the school for
over 30 years.We have had the privilege of teaching many deaf
children in our time.
We are very proud of the achievements of our deaf pupils. We value their achievements, not only academically, but also in their social and emotional development. Great emphasis is placed upon giving them life skills and the confidence to succeed.
Aims:
Facilities:
Our deaf children are members of a mainstream class. They work and
play alongside their hearing peers. In addition our deaf pupils
receive additional teaching support through a specialist Teacher of
the Deaf. Many of the mainstream classrooms have acoustic tiling to
aid listening conditions and our deaf pupils also use a Radio Aid
system to enable them to access the speech of their teachers.
The Centre consists of three rooms for group work downstairs and an
additional room upstairs. All rooms are acoustically treated to
meet the specified building requirements for teaching deaf
children. Children are withdrawn into the centre for specialist
teaching, speech therapy and when appropriate for literacy and
numeracy or other areas.
Our centre provides flexible support which can adapt to the
changing needs of each child: depending on individual need and the
nature of the lesson, they can either be supported in class during
a mainstream lesson or taught individually or in small groups in
the unit classrooms. Whenever appropriate the children are
encouraged to work independently.
Staffing:
The specialist support for our deaf pupils consists of highly
qualified teachers who not only have many years of mainstream
teaching experience, but who also have an additional qualification
as a Teacher of the Deaf. All Teachers of the Deaf have the minimum
specified signing qualification, Level 2 BSL, as required by
Hounslow.
We have Speech Therapists attached to the centre who provide
individual and group therapy sessions on a weekly basis. Our
therapists are specifically trained to work with deaf children.
The London Borough of Hounslow has a policy of Total Communication
in the education of hearing impaired pupils. Our Teachers of the
Deaf are flexible and adapt using various modes of communication,
taking into account individual needs, group needs as well as the
educational setting.
Transition:
Most of the pupils attached to the Centre for the Deaf feed in from
Norwood Green Infant and Nursery School to Norwood Green Junior
School. Similarly, at the end of the juniors most of our pupils go
to Heston Community School Centre for the Deaf. The three centres
provide continuity of provision through close liaison by the
Teachers of the Deaf.
In addition, throughout the year opportunities are planned for to
undertake pupil activities across each school so that the staff and
children become familiar with each other. This helps with
transition and provides our deaf pupils with more confidence when
moving on to a new school. Sports events, assemblies, playtimes and
lesson observations have all taken place over recent years across
the three Centres.
Parents preferred options for schools are discussed during Annual
Review meetings. The ‘Transition Annual Review’ meeting for
deciding Secondary school placement take place in Year 5 for junior
school pupils.
Equipment:
Our Centre for the Deaf encourages maximum use of residual hearing
through good use of appropriate hearing aids, which are checked
daily.
Our children use Phonak MLXi Radio Aids. These are used together
with the child's hearing aids or cochlear implants for use in
mainstream classes to allow direct access to the teacher’s voice,
while reducing the impact of background noise. The radio aids,
transmitters, batteries and audiological shoes are provided by the
Teaching Support Service for use by our pupils in mainstream
classes.
Teachers of the Deaf carry out regular checks of the Radio Aid
receivers and transmitters to ensure the pupils educational
amplification is all in good working order.
Extra-curricular/enrichment:
At Norwood Green Juniors, all children attached to the centre take
part in year group trips and events. In addition, trips are
arranged specifically for the hearing impaired pupils such as
signed performances at the theatre, visits to places of interest
and inter-school sporting events with deaf children from other
schools. These trips are used as a stimulus and followed up in
literacy and PSHCE sessions.
Partnerships with parents:
Close links are maintained between the centre and parents. As many
of our centre children are transported to school via mini-bus, day
to day contact is maintained through use of a home-school liaison
folder. Contact via text/phone is also made when appropriate.
Parents are also invited to attend Parents Evenings as well as the
yearly Annual Review meeting.
Entry criteria:
Exit criteria:
