Deaf Awareness Week

This week we are celebrating Deaf Awareness Week across the UK. HEHS is home to Harrow’s secondary Hearing Impaired Provision so we have been marking this special week in the following ways:

Our BSL Get-together – we welcomed students and staff from across the school to come and learn some finger-spelling and simple BSL (British Sign Language) signs and phrases. We answered interesting questions from students on deafness and talked about the best ways to ensure our deaf/hearing impaired friends never left out of a conversation.

Deaf Role Model of the Day – we have been learning about some famous deaf people from various worlds including music, history, sports and popular culture. Did you know Beethoven continued to compose amazing music even after he was completely deaf? Did you know a deaf model and deaf rights activist won America’s Top Model and Dancing with the Stars? Tutor time activities – testing our lip reading skills, busting myths about deaf people, finger-spelling and discussing how the ear works.

Deaf awareness and communication tips – it’s always useful to be reminded of simple tips to help you communicate with deaf/hearing impaired people. Check out https://www.buzz. org.uk/ for information designed with young people in mind with short clips on communication plus information on BSL and other topics related to being a young deaf person.

We hold the highest expectations for all our students and our Hearing Impaired students never disappoint.

Mrs Ellis
Head of Department