About us

Nestled in the heart of our highly inclusive school, the Resourced Provision has places for twelve children from Nursery to Year 6. The provision is an integral part of the school with a culture of inclusion and a strong focus on achievement for deaf children. It combines the advantage of a mainstream education with highly specialised support and intervention for deaf children. Our approach to communication and supporting children is child centred and flexible. Communication preferences for each child are discussed and reviewed with parents and staff. We are able to provide a broad range of communication support and all forms of communication are equally valued. This is appropriate for children who are oral/aural, those who use British Sign Language and for children who use a combination of both. In line with this, every child in the Deaf Provision has a Communication Profile detailing their current communication methods and best practice for working with the child.

Places

Places are available for children with a moderate to profound hearing loss an EHCP and delayed language development. We recognise the importance of combining inclusive education and specialist support. Children are based in mainstream classes according to age. They are supported in class and withdrawn with support as appropriate. We aim to enable pupils to acquire language and communication skills so they can fully access the curriculum.

The Team

The Summerside team includes Teachers of the Deaf, Communication Support Workers, Deaf Tutors and support from NHS Speech and Language Therapists in partnership with parents and carers.

Provision

We provide daily audiology checks and liaise directly with local audiology clinics. Children are encouraged from a very early age to become independent in the use of their equipment, to remove, clean and fit their hearing aids/cochlear implants and to report difficulties. Key staff perform daily listening checks on hearing aids and cochlear implants to monitor the sound quality and to enable pupils to recognise and respond to any changes and interference that may occur. The rooms in the Deaf Provision are acoustically treated to provide very good listening conditions for the children. All mainstream classrooms and halls have sound-field systems to provide improved amplification of the teacher’s voice. Some classrooms and the halls have additional acoustic panelling to further improve the quality of sound for the children. Where appropriate, we provide FM radio aids for the children to use in class and during withdrawn sessions.

Children have an Individual SEND plan to meet the objectives on their ECHP which is tailored to their current specific needs. SEND plans are written and evaluated by the team around the child including Teachers of the Deaf, the class teacher, parents or carers, the Deaf Tutor, Speech and Language Therapists and the children themselves. Targets are set and reviewed every term.

Depending on need, some pupils in the provision are withdrawn for daily literacy sessions in a small group setting. In addition, pupils have in house Speech and Language Therapy delivered by a Deaf specialist SaLT team. We value speaking and listening as crucial to the development of language and communication leading on to reading and literacy. Sessions are visual and practical to develop the children’s understanding of language in context and supported with BSL and SSE as required.

We provide for the deaf children holistically and foster high levels of self-esteem, confidence and a positive self-identity.  We take full advantage of  a wide range of opportunities to develop confidence and self-esteem alongside hearing peers as well as a sense of the child’s own deaf identity. We encourage children to work independently and develop good personal and social skills.

Working with families

We value home/school links and use individual online home/school books as a means of communication. We record what the children have done in school using text and pictures and we encourage children and parents or carers to do the same at home. We are very happy to discuss the children’s progress with parents or carers by phone, email or in person informally.

What our parents say:

“Thank you for all you do for my daughter. She has loved every minute she has spent at Summerside and I know she will miss Summerside so much, most especially seeing you and being taught by you. She has made friends for life and we will stay in touch with the families as well as Summerside”

 “Just a note to say a big thank you for your support this year. You have been a wonderful constant and educator for the kids. Thank you for all the special days and extra bits you do. We appreciate you very much and just wanted to say a big thank you. “

“As parents, you really couldn’t wish for more! Sending our child to Summerside has been one of the best decisions we have made."