This is an integrated resource unit for Deaf children staffed by teachers from the Sheffield Service for Sensory Impaired Children.
Unit Co-ordinator: Victoria Shortland Cert Ed Advanced diploma of Education, Teacher of the Deaf (Man) (not Wednesdays)
Staff in department: Mrs Michelle Norris, Specialised Teaching Assistant
(Wednesdays only)
Our Philosophy – We believe that hearing-impaired children…
- Have the right to the same access to excellent education as that offered to hearing children.
- Have the same capacity to learn as hearing children. However we recognise that a hearing-impaired child’s command of language and literacy is likely to be affected as a result of their hearing loss.
- Are entitled to the same broad and balanced curriculum as their hearing peers, but in order to facilitate this, we must support their literacy and communication skills. With this in mind, we believe that hearing-impaired pupils need language support.
- Will be best supported if all the professionals (teachers of the deaf, mainstream teachers, audiologists, etc) work closely together with parents in order to meet all the needs of each individual hearing-impaired child. These needs may include a suitably differentiated curriculum, audiological equipment, and support for social skills amongst many others.
- Are entitled to feel like full members of the High Storrs community. We aim to ensure that each child feels first and foremost part of its form group and year group. Children with hearing difficulties should be considered to use the unit rather than be from the unit
Audiology
Ensuring that hearing impaired pupils are able to make the most of their residual hearing at school is an essential part of our work. We work to ensure that:
- The students’ audiological equipment is kept in excellent working order
- Good listening skills and competent lip reading skills are developed
- Strategies to deal with noise in everyday situations are taught and shared.
Currently there are pupils using post-aural hearing aids and pupils who have cochlear implants in the unit. All the pupils use a state-of-the-art radio aid system, which enables them to overcome the problems of background noise in the classroom. Pupils in the unit have their hearing aids and radio aids checked every day to ensure they are kept in the best possible working order
What do we do in the unit ?
The support hearing-impaired pupils are allocated, both in mainstream and the unit, is based on individual need. This need is determined by various ongoing assessments (including audiological) and liaison with other agencies and feeder primary unit. This support may vary during their life at High Storrs according to need at a particular time (for example, extra support may be allocated to a pupil finding GCSE coursework challenging).
