Centre for the deaf
Welcome
We are the only Infant Deaf Centre attached to a mainstream school in Hounslow that cater for Deaf children. We are very proud of this Centre, and the children who attend. Each child is treated as an individual and we help them to develop a positive sense of identity and high levels of self esteem and confidence.
The Centre has been part of Norwood Green Infant School for over 50 years and is an integral part of the school. Our school and Centre believe strongly in inclusive education and our policy is to include pupils with severe to profound hearing loss in mainstream classes wherever possible.
Please click here to watch a video of our centre.
Education
The Centre provides a flexible approach to teaching and can adapt to suit the needs of the children. There is opportunity for the children to receive specialist teaching within the Centre and support from staff in mainstream classes.
Early Years – Nursery & Reception
The children spend the majority of their time in their mainstream class supported by a member of staff from the Centre. They are withdrawn into the Centre for focused work to support the learning that is occurring in their class.
Key Stage 1 – Years 1 & 2
The children tend to be withdrawn for English where their speech and language targets are incorporated into English planning. For Maths the children can either be included within their class or withdrawn into the Centre. This is dependent on the complexity of language used in the teaching.
Communication
We support a policy of 'Total Communication' and are flexible to children’s communication needs, which may include oralism, sign supported English, BSL (British Sign Language) or a combination of these approaches. All children and staff, hearing and deaf, are encouraged to sign so that we are all able to communicate with each other. We deliver weekly Deaf Awareness lessons to all mainstream classes as part of our inclusion policy.
A speech and language therapist will visit weekly and deliver speech therapy onsite as outlined in the child’s Education, Health and Care Plan.
Transition
The majority of our children move onto Norwood Green Junior School which also has a Centre for deaf pupils. They operate a very similar model of teaching to our Infant and Nursery School. We have strong links with the Juniors and transitioning to the Juniors tend to be very smooth.
Facilities & Equipment
- The Centre has two teaching rooms and a speech therapy room.
- All rooms are acoustically tiled to a high specification.
- When ready, children are fitted with an FM radio aid system that gives them greater access to the teacher’s speech.
- There are at least two mainstream classrooms in each year group that are acoustically treated and our children will be placed in these classrooms because of their optimum listening conditions.
