PDDCS members sign a song at PRC's Diversity Day

We forgot the camera so here is a student's perception of the performance and her peers' emotions.

Last week, seven young deaf students took part in Peterborough Regional College's Diversity Day. It was the first time deaf students were invited to the annual event that promotes awareness and understanding of respect, equality and diversity and community cohesion. The day opened with a Chinese dragon and short musical performances by the children from the college's nursery.

The deaf students performed a signed song version of 'Lean on me' after their musical lead, Nicki played the flute (her first ever public performance - it was great). Nicki and the students then proceeded to teach everyone in the hall the chorus to 'Lean on me' and their session ended with a huge crowd signed song performance. The feedback from general public was great; "it was one of the best performance they have seen at the Diversity Day". Well done to the students.

Relieved that their session was over, the young students enjoyed a variety of foods and the opportunity to try some Indian dancing, as well as watch their teacher attempt some Irish dancing!

Look, it's Tara in the Mirror!

Member Tara Forkin made it into the national press as the Daily Mirror reported on the row about the fall in GCSE results for deaf children following cuts to education budgets across the country.

Fortunately in Peterborough there are no cuts reported at the moment and Tara tells the paper how well she has been supported. Long may it continue. Coming in for particular praise is the Teacher of the Deaf and the support received in class. Tara said:

“I definitely would not have achieved my grades without the support put in place for me,” said Tara, of Peterborough.

“My Teacher of the Deaf was very in tune with my needs and the areas I needed to brush up on in revision sessions, I’m really lucky to have such a fantastic teacher of the deaf.”
Tara says she loves having extra support with her lessons as it stops her from having the extra burden of worrying she has missed something or having to clarify points discussed after every lesson.

“She is able to get this support because she has a statement of special educational needs, which stipulates that she must have support from a Teacher of the Deaf to advise on use of equipment and a Teaching Assistant.

She added: “Deaf children face many challenges in school, every day. Classrooms are noisy and there are no allowances made for this. I would ask the Government not to make cuts to deaf children’s services. Deaf children cannot progress without support in school, it’s that simple.”

Full story here

Review of 2012: Award Winners

In the first part of a series of posts looking at PDDCS achievements in 2012, first up we look at award winners. 2012 saw three of our number receive awards for their outstanding contribution.

Legend John Recognised
At the PDDCS Fun Day back in May, outgoing President John Cheetham was awarded with a specially inscribed tankard from PDDCS to recognise his contribution to our society for over 20 years. John still remains on the committee and focuses on projects including Music and the Deaf.

Stephen's award

In June, Youth member Stephen Sear was commended for his excellence on work experience at Crighton's Car dealership in Peterborough. He was able to apply the knowledge he gained from his motor vehicle course during an award winning two-week work experience period.


High Q TQ
In July, PDDCS Committee member and website writer TQ,won the award for Best Support for Children with Special Needs at a glitzy ceremony at the Key Theatre in Peterborough. TQ was recognised by the local authourity for her work and in typical TQ style, she shared the credit: "This award is great but I have to pay tribute to my fantastic team who do so much too. I see this as an award for us all. Not to mention the fantastic children who make it all worthwhile" she said.

Golding Standard

Then in October, PDDCS member and volunteer Chyanne Golding won Deaf Teen of the Year for the Cambridgeshire area. Chyanne was presented with the award at the Moving On Event in Cambridge.  She won the award for her outstanding contribution. This is what they said about her: "She has been an inspiration to her mainstream peers as well as many children and adults (both deaf and hearing)." 

Tara is a leader
Finally in December, another one of our youth members and volunteers, Tara Forkin was recognised for her outstanding leadership and support for other students at the Jack Hunt School which she attends.

At the award ceremony she was was recognised for her work with students and other activities that include completion of a Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award and assisting at the Disability Sports Club and Disability Sports fixtures. Well done to all the award winners!

Next up: 2012 Famous Faces.

Charlie and Ted dazzle Peterborough

Ted meets Jamie McCullough

It was a night to remember for those at the John Clare Theatre in Peterborough's city centre on Friday as Ted Evans and Charlie Swinbourne shared their stories of how they made thier careers in film making, script writing and journalism.

Intertwined with the fascinating and inspiring stories were specially made video clips from Ted and captivating examples of Charlie's film making work including 'My Song' and 'Four Deaf Yorkshiremen'. Ted gave glimpses of his award winning film 'The End' and revealed how he put together the film for the opening ceremony of the London Paralympic Games.

It was revealed at the end of the evening that Ted and Charlie have agreed to work as consultants on a potential PDDCS film project and that two deaf actors have also agreed to come down and help any budding deaf actors or actresses from Peterborough learn how to do it. Add to that PDDCS have also got the support of the BSLBT (British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust) to develop a film in readiness for Deaffest 2013 and everything is in place for PDDCS's first film! Keep an eye on PDDCS news for updates.

I would like to thank Jack Hunt School for their funding of the evening and Teresa Quail for her efforts in organising the night. Finally - thanks to Ted and Charlie for an outstanding evening - it was an evening we won't forget. Poigniantly the evening ended with the final sequence from Ted's film 'From us to you'.

Charlie meets Jamie too - Jamie made his own film and is a potential storyboard creator

Andy Palmer with Ted and Charlie

Charlie asks for Tara Forkin's autograph

Charlie and Ted take the questions at the end (and maybe about The End)

Charlie looks on at one of Ted's captivating custom made clips for the event

In conversation - Charlie looks impressed as Ted tals about his film making roots



Andy shows Ted and Charlie his biceps

TLM

As if by magic ... He's got a winning smile that lad Calum..

Mo shows how to groom the perfect beard.

Ted and Charlie get the attention they deserve from the audience

Calum = cool



Andy: Can we all stop chatting and get on with the show? 

 

Ted, Charlie and some aspiring film makers..

Fascinating insight into life for deaf children in 1954

Last week my father bought to my attention two videos that had been uploaded to YouTube of a documentary into life at the Royal School for Deaf Children in Margate from 1954. Unfortunately, the videos were not subtitled so Teresa Quail and myself set about the task of transcribing the videos and re-uploading them for all to enjoy.

The video is particularly close to my heart because in part two it features my mother, Catherine, as an eight-year-old girl enjoying class with her friend Linda Fincham who has remained a friend of our family for years.

It's provides a fascinating insight into school life and the approaches to educating deaf children sixty years ago. In the second part of the film, the children are discussing a book called 'Little Black Sambo' which was popular in the first part of the 20th century. Since then the book has fallen out of favour in schools because the language and illustrations are not appropriate today. For more information on this book, please see it's Wikipedia entry.

Please click the 'CC' button at the bottom right of the screen to access the subtitles.

Peterborough Telegraph cover MATD event

Local news website, Peterborough Today, covered the Mayor's visit to the Music and the Deaf Concert  yesterday.

Former PDDCS President, John Cheetham and award winning committee member Teresa Quail have been working with Music and the Deaf, Cambridgeshire Music, Jack Hunt School and the Peterborough Lions to help young deaf people in the city learn how to perform music. Many thanks to Kirsty D for the communication support

New Mayor, Councillor George Simons, is pictured with music teachers and performers, some of whom are PDDCS members. Read the full story here.

Sign 2 Sign World Record Broken!

Well, you may remember that back in February, people across the land took part in an attempt to break the world record for the highest number of people across the UK signing to a song at the same time ..

Well good news. Although not yet confirmed by Guinness, the organisers are confident that the record has been broken with 114,227 participants. That's 19,788 more than the previous world record. 

Big thanks goes out in Peterborough to Teresa Quail, staff and pupils at Jack Hunt School, Action on Hearing Loss staff and folk from Peterborough Deaf Club who all got involved on the day. 

Check back PDDCS News for the official confirmation - but its a good as done now. 

TQ Scoops Top Local Education Award

Teresa Quail receives the trophy and certificate

Prominent PDDCS Committee Member, PDDCS lead blogger and Lead Teacher of the Deaf for Secondary Provision, Teresa Quail has won the award for Best Support for Students for Special Needs at Peterborough Telegraph Education Awards.

This was for Teresa's teriffic work with Students from Jack Hunt School's Hearing Unit which has been nothing short of amazing.

Teresa said "This award is great but I have to pay tribute to my fantastic team who do so much too. I see this as an award for us all. Not to mention the fantastic children who make it all worthwhile"

The award ceremony was Peterborough's Key Theatre and the award was sponsored by Vivacity and the Key Theatre who were unfortunately unable to provide signed support or subtitles for the deaf adults and students who were there to see the awards ceremony. This despite having prior notice.

Teresa also plays a major role within PDDCS. Teresa has secured funding for the Deaf Role Models night, sponsorship for the John Smith Comedy night, enabled the use of Jack Hunt School for events, regularly volunteered and written hundreds of posts for the PDDCS blog which has recently seen it's 50,000th hit. Teresa also coordinated the City's contribution to the world record breaking 'Sign2Sing' effort this year.

From all at PDDCS, well done Teresa and thank you from everyone involved with deaf children in Peterborough. We're lucky you chose us.

Click here for the video of the event from PT (without subtitles) 

See below for more images of the night.

Teresa and other award nominees

Teresa with some of her team, students and parent after the awards

Teresa inspects the certificate outside with a friend

Teresa Quail with the trophy, Pamela Kilbey with her Best Headteacher nominee certificate