Secondary Department news

A highlight of another busy term included sporting success at the National Deaf Schools Football 5 a sides in Derby.  The Junior Boys team, a combination of three Thorn Park pupils, Lukeman, Falak and Majid, plus deaf boys from Nab Wood, too third place and bronze medals in the Junior Boys Competition, whilst the Girls team gained long awaited success by also winning bronze medals in the Girls Competition.  Well done to Halima, Haleema, Firdous, Zara and Sophie.

I was particularly pleased to receive an e-mail from a deaf tutor based in Leeds called Ian Robinson who took the time to tell me how impressed he was when he met some of our Year 9/10/11 pupils at a two day course in Leeds.  The course was at Leeds Met University and aimed to give a taste of higher education.  Mr Robinson told me the Thorn Park students clearly knew how to use interpreters whilst they were mature and sensible with a sense of humour.  He concluded that they would become excellent Deaf role models in the future.  I thanked Mr Robinson for taking the time to tell us that and I passed on his glowing opinion to the students in assembly.

Two of our assemblies featured former pupils.  First, Christopher Ineson and Kirk Fields came in.  Chris, who left two years ago, talked about his experiences at Nab Wood and Keighley College, whilst Kirk, who left last year, explained about his time so far at Doncaster College.  Then Sumayya and Ismail Dalal, sister and brother who left some ten years ago, came in and talked about their work, as a Deaf Instructor and joiner respectively.  The talks were very interesting and helpful to our students.  Just before Christmas, Gemma Greaves – who left last year also came in and talked about her start at Doncaster College.

A third visitor to assembly was Wayne Adams, who came to Thorn Park as a primary pupil.  He is now a support worker for hearing pupils at nearby Heaton Primary School and runs the Bradford Deaf Youth Club.  He explained about the shortage of numbers at the Deaf Youth Club and as a result of his visit, a number of our pupils have begun attending.  The Youth Club is on a Thursday evening 7pm to 9pm at the refurbished Toller Youth Café on the roundabout (the old police station).  If any parents want information about this please contact me.  Letters did go out!!

We have had many visits out over the last ten weeks.  One of the most useful was made by our 6th form and Key Stage 4 students to Doncaster College for the Deaf.  They were very impressed.  Meanwhile individuals have been looking round college in their own area, visiting establishments in Huddersfield, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Blackburn.

Another important visit was to the Deaf Social Services at Morley Street.  All our pupils from Year 9 upwards visited the centre and learned about their services including BSL interpreting, booking medical appointments, ordering equipment, helping with reading letters/form filling and dealing with personal problems.

Key Stage 4 students went on two Art visits to Saltaire and Cliffe Castle, Keighley.  Meanwhile KS3 pupils went to the Imperial War Museum in Manchester as part of their History and English topic work on Hitler and the 2nd World War.

We have had exam successes too.  Key Stage 4 pupils recently sat Science and Maths GCSE modules.  The Science results are back.  All the pupils passed and one of them, Firdous, dropped only four marks to gain a C grade. Excellent!!  We are also awaiting CACDP BSL exam results for lots of pupils and staff.

Inclusion is mainstream schools is continuing to develop.  Halima and Zara are doing very well in their GCSE Textiles at Belle Vue Girls, whilst Lukeman is going to Nab Wood for PE and DT one morning a week.  Amir has been attending an after school mixed deaf/hearing club at Castleford High School near his home in Wakefield.

Meanwhile Sophie and Sarah have started to go to Hanson School for Design Technology.  After the summer half term all of our KS 3 students will be going to Hanson for DT once a week.

A very exciting venture is our ICT webcam link up with deaf charity, Deafax.  They came to us in the autumn term and in February, the first attempts were made to link up with another school, Deansfield in Wolverhampton.  Technical difficulties at their end limited progress this time but another date has been arranged when our Year 9 pupils will be signing via webcams to the Wolverhampton deaf pupils.  Please be aware of the following summer dates we know so far:-

• Deaf tennis at Middlesbrough for Year 7 plus primary on Tuesday April 29th.
• Work Experience fortnight for Year 11 and 6th form starting Monday April 28th.
• Friday May 2nd, Additional Training Day for staff.  Secondary pupils to stay at home that day.
• KS3 SATs exams for Year 9 pupils, Tuesday May 6th and Friday May 9th (Good luck Falak, Chaand, Kiran and Neelam).
• KS2 SATs exams for Year 6 pupils, week starting Monday 12th (Good luck Zaahida)
• Yorkshire Deaf Schools Film Festival Thursday May 16th and 16th.
• GCSE OCR Science Modular exam. Thursday 5th June.
• Work Experience fortnight for Year 10 students, starting Monday June 9th.
• GCSE OCR Science re-sit Tuesday June 17th
• Parents Evening Thursday 3rd July.
• Industry Day Tuesday 15th July
• Secondary Department is also looking at the possibility for a residential at Buckden House in the Yorkshire Dales this summer for Year 9 for two nights, Monday 14th July and Tuesday 15th July.  More information as soon as we have it.

Learning how to book an interpreter at Morley Street.

The Secondary Department provides a broad and balanced curriculum to Deaf young people aged from 11 – 19. However at present we do have some younger pupils working in the Department The pupils follow age appropriate courses, based on the National Curriculum, which are tailored to meet their individual learning needs.
Subjects offered include:

• English/Literacy
• Maths/Numeracy
• Science
• ICT
• Design Technology
• Physical Education
• Art
• Music
• History
• Geography
• Personal, Social and Health Education
• Careers
• BSL
• Deaf Studies
• Citizenship
• Work Related Studies

Students are taught in small groups, mainly by experienced, qualified, teachers of the deaf, who teach throughout the Department. The majority of these teachers are specialist subject teachers. We offer a bilingual approach to teaching. Students also have the opportunity to work with a range of adults including Deaf Instructors, Communicators/Interpreters and Special Needs Assistants.

We offer a range of examinations, including: GCSE, Certificate of Achievement, CLAIT etc.

Pupils have the opportunity to access a range of activities, which help develop their self-confidence and self-awareness as independent Deaf young people, these include involvement in sporting activities, cultural activities, work experience and link courses with local Further Education Colleges.