A Warm Welcome to Fleetdown Primary Academy Pirate Ship: a specialist resource provision for pupils with a severe to profound hearing impairment.

The Pirate Ship is the name that we give to our specialist resource provision for pupils who have a severe to profound hearing loss. In total, we have provision for thirteen primary school aged pupils.  We use a Total Communication approach, which entails the use of British Sign Language (BSL), Sign Supported English, and voice, which is reinforced through visual resources, body language and facial expressions, all of which help to secure each pupil's understanding and learning. Our aim is to ensure that every child has the opportunity to develop to their full potential academically, socially and emotionally, in a safe and nurturing environment.

Our deaf pupils receive a broad and balanced curriculum, which is rich in vocabulary and differentiated to meet the needs of every child.  If some of our pupils are unable to access the mainstream classroom for their core learning, they will be taught by our Teacher of the Deaf within a small focus group.  This group is made up of deaf and hearing pupils who have been identified as having a specific speech and language disorder and/or, are working at least 1 year below their age related expectations. These children follow the same assessment rota as the rest of the school, but are assessed against their own unique starting point.

Where children are able to access their lessons in the mainstream classroom, they are supported by BSL qualified Communication Support Workers who take on a range of roles, such as signing instructions for the child, scribing and translating sign for the class teacher, and differentiating resources to ensure all lessons are accessible for our pupils. All of our children are encouraged to join their mainstream classroom for the afternoon, where they are able to mix confidently with their hearing peers. We also provide pupils the opportunity to work with their Communication Support Workers to address the targets that have been set on their Educational Health Care Plans.

Our teachers and Communication Support Workers receive training from our Teacher of the Deaf at the beginning of every academic year to ensure that they fully understand the strategies required to ensure our pupils make excellent progress within the mainstream classroom.  This Deaf Awareness training continues throughout the year, and is delivered to all of our pupils too.

We realise the importance of our hearing impaired children having the opportunity to come together as cohort, so they participate in weekly, Deaf Healthy Mind sessions, where they learn life skills, talk about shared experiences and discuss what their deafness means for them. These sessions explore good emotional health and well-being, and encourage our children to build a repertoire of social skills and problem solving skills that they'll need to be fully functional adult's in today's world.  

We are also very proud to have our KS1 & KS2 Signing Choir, which is a club run by our qualified British Sign Language teaching assistants and Teacher of the Deaf.  The Signing Choir is made up of both deaf and hearing pupils.  It is a very popular after school club and pupils who attend have the opportunity to perform at both school events and within the local community.

If you have a deaf child and would like to talk to our SENDcO (Nicola King) or talk to our Teacher of the Deaf (Michaela Wright) and view our Pirate Ship provision, please contact the school office to make an appointment.