Deaf Awareness Training at JFS school

JDA members make new JFS friends

Jody Sacks, JDA Family Services Coordinator, has arranged an interesting programme of Deaf Awareness Training for the 14 year old students at JFS for the past four years.

This year, for the first time, JFS pupils came to visit all of us at the JDA.

The training took place over four days in June, and the children learned all about different aspects of deafness and communication.  Many of the students and teachers had never had the opportunity to meet a deaf person before.

Our first trainer was Andrew Goodwin, who is profoundly deaf and communicates orally. He explained about lip reading and effective communication tactics.

On the second day, the training was done by Antony Rabin who is Deaf, and communicates in BSL and uses sign language interpreters.  He described clearly his life as a Deaf person and taught the students the basics of BSL and Deaf Culture.  He and Gabbie Radnor from JDA’s Hearing Connect demonstrated a variety of equipment that is available to deaf people.

The third day saw sixty students, their teachers and an armed security guard, pile into Julius Newman House! Our members, Deaf and Deafblind, shared their inspiring life experiences with the students, and the children took it all in, particularly watching in fascination the Deafblind communicators.  They met Jean Wells, our lipreading tutor who is deafened, and learnt about the role of Barney, her Hearing Dog for Deaf People.

The last day of training took place at JFS and it was the best yet.  JDA members were served a salmon lunch by their new found JFS friends and they all enjoyed sitting and communicating with each other.  Afterwards, the members helped the trainers Eva Stravrou, Rebecca Clements and Peter Abraham to teach the children to sign a John Lennon song, ‘Imagine’ which was recently covered by the popular TV show Glee. 

The students then proudly presented the song in British Sign Language to the audience of peers, teachers and visitors in the school theatre.

Jody would like to thank wholeheartedly all the members who participated in this programme for their time and contribution. It made a real difference in breaking down barriers, increasing awareness and improving communication and understanding between deaf people and the students at JFS.

Imagine

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world.

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.