Specialist Provision

Glebe is the only primary school in the London Borough of Hillingdon with a Specialist Resourced Provision (SRP) for deaf children.    The SRP accommodates a small number of deaf children, who benefit from an oral/aural education in a mainstream school, which has specialist staff and equipment to support their needs.                                                                                                                                                                                              

We work hard in the SRP, sometimes with support and sometimes independently. Some of the time we work in our classrooms, but some of the time we come to The Hub for our lessons - whatever  is best for us in that lesson.  We all have access to our own personal radio aid to help us hear more clearly in the classroom/Hub, they help us to communicate with our teachers and friends.

 

Having a group of deaf friends makes us feel elated because we all understand each other and what it's like to be deaf.  On Friday, we can come to The Hub to eat lunch and talk to our friends.  The children in The Hub feel like our family.  Hub explorers is fun, we are given projects to complete that we are then able to take into class to support us and our classmates with our learning (see photos below for some examples of what we have created!)

 (Samer, Dhiren, Kamaljeet, Saleem)

Being part of the SRP makes me feel...

"I feel lucky to be part of The Hub because people help us. " (Abida, Yr 3)

"It makes me happy and we have fun at school" (Junaid, Yr 4)

"I feel excited when we make things in Hub Explorers" (Michael, Yr 3)

                      

Our pupils benefit from experienced mainstream classroom teachers. Our pupils also benefit from classrooms treated with Soundfield systems, enabling the teacher's voice to be heard equally well from wherever they sit in the room.

In addition the SRP staff consists of:

• A qualified Teacher of the Deaf
• Experienced Nursery Nurses and Learning Support Assistants
• Visiting Speech and Language Therapist
• Visiting Educational Psychologist
• Liaison and support from Cochlear Implant Teams of leading children's hospitals
• Visiting technician from the Ewing Foundation

SRP Resources:

• All classrooms are acoustically designed to support our children
• In addition to this,  we have two rooms within the SRP for our children to learn in, which are used for: interventions, group work and speech and language therapy, amongst other activities
• All of our children have radio aids, to support them with their speaking and listening
• The provision of a wide range of technical aids.

Speech and Language Therapy:

Our Speech and Language Therapist, Misha Amin (The Northwood Speech and Language Therapy Practice) visits once a week. This ensures that all of our children get the required number of termly speech and language contacts, as stated in their Education, Health and Care Plan.  Parents have the opportunity to come and meet with Misha on a termly basis, to discuss their child's progress and how they can support this at home.

Personal Understanding of Deafness (PUD):

All SRP pupils undertake Personal Understanding of Deafness sessions, with a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf. This is, 'A specialised curriculum for hearing impaired children aged 3–16, to promote independence and self-confidence.' By following this curriculum, we enable the children to develop an understanding of their individual hearing needs and the confidence to communicate those needs to their peers and staff. The PUD sessions are a valuable resource in preparing the children for secondary school and beyond. 

Staff Training:

All teaching staff have an annual Deaf Awareness inset, ensuring that the whole school has a deaf friendly approach. All SRP staff have a weekly meeting, which allows us to continue to deliver the best possible provision for our children.

General Information:

The SRP for deaf pupils was opened in September 1980. We have 2 large classrooms, that are divided into areas for teaching small groups and 1-1 speech and language therapy sessions. Teachers of the Deaf, Nursery Nurses and Learning Support Assistants are on hand to support our pupils.

We are an aural / oral provision and we aim to provide specialist teaching, support and resources for deaf pupils from age 4 to 11, additional to that available in the mainstream school. Our objective is to enable the pupils to access the curriculum, to communicate effectively and to realise their potential and achieve maximum independence. 

     

We aim to support the children to be independent learners, who are ready for the next stage in their education, by the time they leave us. We encourage the children to take ownership of their learning. This includes teaching the children how to manage their equipment, to develop their personal understanding of their hearing needs, how to use the resources available to them and to feed off of their curiosity, instilling within each child a love of learning that they will carry with them once they leave Glebe.                          

                             

 We tailor the curriculum to make it as creative as possible. We use practical activities to bring topics to life, so that we can best support the children in acquiring new vocabulary and language skills.

All the children are on the roll of their mainstream class and we aim for them to be taught in class alongside their typically hearing peers, with support if necessary. In addition, the children might spend some time each day in the SRP to work individually or as part of a small group on speech and language or literacy skills.  All SRP staff work closely with the mainstream teachers.