... Education Ministers (BSL related)

... Education Ministers.

Dear sir/madam,

I'm sure you will agree that language development is massively important to all children.  Our teachers and support workers (even parents) are all drilled in language milestones and ways our children can achieve them.

Why is it then, even in the wake of the recognition of British Sign Language (BSL) as an official language, that our profoundly Deaf children who use BSL are still not exposed in most schools to adults who are fluent in their language?  The policy in most authorities is still:  staff with Level 1 (Basic) sign language support in nursery and as the child progresses through the school system, they are rewarded with more skilled staff.  More often than not, students at GCSE and A level are still being supported by people with Level 3 qualifications, a level not thought to be good enough to work anywhere else except in education.

I have no doubt that qualifications and skill level are often not equivalent.  Some support staff may actually be from Deaf families and use BSL as their first language.  Others passed their Level 3 many years ago and have not developed their skills at all.  This is not a criticism of the support staff, but rather the education policy.

The result of these policies is that 3 - 7 yr old Deaf children do not experience the same language modelling that hearing children experience.  Ask your Educational Psychologists what affect it would have on hearing children, if all the adults in our primary schools used English at/around an old CSE grade 3.  Ask the parents if they would be happy with that.  I think you know what the answer would be.  That is the equivalent of what you are doing to Deaf children.

Give Deaf children in the UK a chance to succeed.

Yours,

Welsh Letters