Children across the school have been participating in a variety of interesting and challenging activities to celebrate Deaf Awareness Week, which falls this year from 4th to 10th May.
This year’s theme, Right to understand – together we break barriers, highlights the challenges faced by Deaf and hard-of-hearing people and the importance of working together to create a more inclusive society.
In Early Years, children had a visit from pupils in the Prep BSL Club who taught them some British Sign Language (BSL) signs for their favourite animals, such as lion, dog, elephant and monkey and then enjoyed watching a signed narration of the famous Rod Campbell book, Dear Zoo.
Pupils in Years 1 and 2 watched videos from Signature’s The School of Signs, finding out about BSL and Deaf awareness. They became secret agents to discover the best ways to communicate with a Deaf or hard of hearing person.
In the Prep School, to complement the effort and dedication that pupils are making in preparation for their upcoming production of The Lion King, each year group enjoyed a workshop learning to sign along to the Circle of Life, interpreted by Dr Paul Whittaker OBE. As a profoundly deaf musician, Paul is in constant demand to give signed theatre and musical performances both in the UK and internationally, and was awarded an OBE in 2007 for Services to Music. Children quickly understood the task of pacing their movements to match the rhythm of the music, while expressing the sentiment of the lyrics through actions, gestures and facial expression, adding a new dimension to their understanding of this very beautiful and meaningful song.
Categories: Extra Curricular
