Standards and Quality Report 2017-18

School Name: Hamilton School for the Deaf

Context of the school:

Hamilton School for the Deaf is situated in Anderson Street, Hamilton on a shared campus with Glenlee Primary. The two Nurseries share the playroom in a fully inclusive manner. Within the school, we operate inclusion and reverse inclusion with Glenlee Primary when appropriate, while still maintaining small class sizes (up to 6 children) to allow intensive language acquisition. The Outreach Service provides support to deaf children within South Lanarkshire.

The school role last session was 19. The school takes in children from throughout North and South Lanarkshire and all children come by special transport arrangements. It is important that pupils have full access to all extracurricular activities available in the joint campus and for this reason we endeavour to re arrange special transport arrangements to allow pupils to take part in clubs and activities after school.

The aim of Hamilton School for the Deaf is to provide our pupils with an environment where they can have full linguistic access to the curriculum which allows them to achieve at least in line with their hearing peers. We aim to provide them with a curriculum which fosters the development of a positive Deaf identity and language proficiency which enables them to play as full a part as possible in both Deaf and hearing communities. The languages used within the school are BSL and English.

We have a joint Parent Council with Glenlee primary school. We have strong links with our parents who are regularly invited into school to for example sign stories to the children as are other adults from the local Deaf community.

We are part of Calderside Learning Community and have strong links with local schools. We also have strong links with other deaf schools and resource bases throughout the West of Scotland meeting up with them four times a year at the Church for the Deaf and other outing arranged throughout the year.

The staff in Hamilton School for the Deaf are either qualified teachers of the Deaf or in training to become qualified. They have very good signing skills with four of them currently undertaking BSL level 6.

Review of SIP progress session __2017-2018__________________

1. Priority 1: Priority 1: Build a curriculum which reflects the principles of Curriculum for Excellence and has been developed to meet the needs of deaf learners, in particular, with respect to literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing and is designed and delivered to maximise attainment. This will include the development of the use of ICT which exploits our children’s strengths as visual learners and an increase in the relevance of the curriculum with respect to being a member of the deaf community. Also develop use of technology to improve listening conditions for deaf learners in the school and outreach.

National Improvement Framework Key Priorities Improvement in attainment, particularly in

literacy and numeracy; Closing the attainment gap between the most

and least disadvantaged children; Improvement in children and young people’s

health and wellbeing; and Improvement in employability skills and

sustained positive school leaver destinations for all young people.

National Improvement Framework Key Drivers

School leadership

Teacher professionalism

Parental engagement

Assessment of children’s progress

School improvement

Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 3.2 and 2.3

Progress and Impact:

We have made use of Terezinha Nunes’ maths early intervention pack with our primary 2 children. We have not yet evaluated its impact however we administered a base line assessment to allow this to be undertaken when the pack is completed. We are now ready to use the Number Talks resource with our Primary 1/2 class.

Frank Barnes literacy planning tool is now linked to the CfE benchmarks to ensure better tracking of progress. Staff have had further opportunities to ensure they are confident when using the planning

document and new resources. A new spelling programme has been introduced along with other literacy activities and approaches.

Our Deaf BSL tutor left us this session so we were unable take forward our children undertaking National BSL qualifications.

We had no 2 year olds in the nursery last session and our nursery focus changed due to the needs of our nursery children.

We now have 7 sound field systems in use across South Lanarkshire schools. Internet safety input was delivered to all pupils by Monklands Police. Furniture and books have been bought for the library. The library will be ready to open in August

2018. All staff received Lego Build to Express in house training and the resource is now being used

regularly across the school to allow pupils to explore their emotions and as a stimulus for writing. We are now discussing outreach pupils’ assessment results and appropriate targets at our weekly

outreach meetings. Our secondary outreach teacher is now involved in transition activities with pupils from Primary 6 Time has been spent by staff familiarising themselves with the Word Aware resource. A data base has been established for all outreach pupils which includes SIMDs, level of hearing

loss, assessment results etc. We delivered a Local Authority wide training course entitled, Meeting the Needs of Children with a

Hearing Loss in Mainstream schools. It was well attended, and feedback was very positive. .

Next Steps:

Outreach staff will receive training on the Word Aware resource. Introduce Number Talks to primary 1,2 and prepare to introduce it to primary 3 next year. Investigate how Active literacy and the Talk to Write approach could benefit our deaf pupils. School assessment folders to be reviewed and new assessments devised or purchased as

necessary. Develop a document that links Outreach assessments to relevant resources. Next session we will visit other Early Years establishments which meets the needs of 2,3 and 4 year

olds together in one room to learn how this can be accomplished

Priority 3: Build on and further develop the self-evaluation processes being used within HSD in particular consulting with parents and other agencies; learning from best practice and research; reflecting on practice through Critical Friend and peer observations

National Improvement Framework Key Drivers

School leadership

Teacher professionalism

Parental engagement

Assessment of children’s progress

School improvement

Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 1.1Progress and Impact:

Staff have set up Critical Friend partnerships and have observed each other teach and provided feedback. We used a Digital Toolkit to audit the use of ICT throughout the school. We produced an action list which we

have started to implement Our Parents Reading workshop was well attended and feedback was very positive. There is evidence that

children are being read to more at home. They are being read to more in school also.

Next Steps:

Staff will receive training on the How Good is OUR School self-evaluation document with the aim of using it to gather the views of our pupils.

Outreach will review their self-evaluation procedures by comparing them to other similar services in Scotland.

Outreach staff will consider how we can gather the views of the pupils they support. We will review how we use technology across the school and outreach service

1. Priority 4: Further develop the ethos of shared leadership within HSD and outreach service with the aim that staff feel empowered to lead school developments.

National Improvement Framework Key Drivers

School leadership

Teacher professionalism

Parental engagement

Assessment of children’s progress

School improvement

Performance information

HGIOS 4 QI: 1.3

Progress and Impact:

Staff continue to lead developments within the school with very good work having been achieved.

Next Steps: More opportunities for staff to lead developments will be provided next session.

1. Priority 5: Change policies and practices with the aim of making HSD a nurturing school.

Achieving Excellence: Overall Progress towards National Improvement Framework PrioritiesSession 2017-18Use all available evidence (including data)

Literacy: Progress satisfactory good very

goodexcellent

√

Strengths This session we have spent a lot of our development time researching and implementing changes to

our literacy approach across the school. For example, we revised our spelling programme to develop pupils’ understanding of prefixes and suffixes and recognise common chunks of words and their meaning.

We have introduced an idiom of the week for all classes which allows our second language learners to understand common phrases when reading and hopefully be able to incorporate them in their writing.

Last session we were fortunate to have a profoundly deaf student teacher working in the school. We consulted with her on strategies she found effective when learning to read and incorporated her experience, and findings from research into a parents’ workshop. We shared strategies on how to read with deaf children while also learning from deaf parents present on how they read with their deaf children and strategies they use when reading themselves. We also delivered another parents’ workshop to inform them of our new approach to teaching literacy within the school. Feedback from the workshops was very positive with parents feeling empowered to read more with their deaf children and we have evidence that children are being read to more at home.

We introduced a planning tool for all classes linked to our new literacy programme which we have linked to Curriculum for Excellence benchmarks.

We used our Pupil Equity Fund allocation to buy 500 book banded books to stock our new library for which we also bought furniture.

Next steps

We will have a strong focus on writing next session. We will investigate how we can provide our senior pupils with opportunities to be read to daily. We will investigate the Talk to Write programme to see how the approaches used could benefit our young writers.

Numeracy:Progress satisfactory good very

goodexcellent

√

1. Priority 5: Change policies and practices with the aim of making HSD a nurturing school.

Strengths

In our senior classes our pupils predominantly access their numeracy lessons in their Glenlee mainstream class.

In our primary 2 class we implemented an early intervention numeracy programme which was specifically designed for deaf children.

We have developed an understanding of some of the Number Talks programme with staff having received some training. Resources have also been prepared ready for us to implement the programme next session.

Critical thinking resources have been used in the primary 3/4 class

Next steps:

We will extend the use of our early intervention numeracy programme to our new P1 and P2 classes next session.

New TJ assessments have been purchased ready for use next session to help us to monitor progress and inform planning across the school.

We will roll out the Number Talks programme having firstly administered a base line assessment of the targeted numeracy concepts to allow us to monitor progress and the effectiveness of the programme.

Health and Wellbeing

Progress satisfactory good very good

excellent

√

Strengths:

We continue to use the Paths programme throughout the school to develop our young peoples’ emotional literacy and help them build positive relationships. Staff regularly use the wellbeing indicators as a focus for discussion around individual children’s health and wellbeing. These discussions produce action points which are taken forward to improve health and wellbeing. The children have continued to use the wellbeing indicators to understand their own health and wellbeing.

Staff have been trained this session on the “Lego Build to Express” resource and are already using it as a tool to help our young people express their emotions as well as a stimulus for their writing.

We have continued to increase the number of deaf adults who work in, or regularly visit, the school. We now have a permanent fulltime deaf member of staff who along with our regular deaf visitors and deaf student teacher are contributing to our children developing positive deaf identities which we hope in turn will foster positive mental health.

Next steps:

We plan to increase inclusion opportunities within mainstream classrooms for our senior pupils to allow them to benefit from a larger group of positive behavioral role models and also to prepare them better for their move to secondary school.

Due to the small deaf peer group within the school friendship choices can be limited resulting in greater relationship challenges than normal. We plan to include further opportunities for Glenlee pupils to learn sign language to support friendships.

We will investigate emotional wellbeing programmes which may benefit our pupils for example, Draw to Talk and Relax Kids

Employability Skills/Positive Destinationssatisfactory good very excellent

good√

Strengths

All pupils were involved in an enterprise activity where they planned and carried out a Cake Sale, selling their own baking and donated cakes, to Glenlee pupils, staff and Hamilton School for the Deaf parents. They raised £174

The pupils took part in a number of activities throughout the year allowing them to learn new skills from Deaf adults. The BDA’s Deaf Roots and Pride project delivered a Media workshop where deaf adults taught them about photography, cinematography and advertising. They attended an ICT workshop run by deaf adults in the Apple store in Glasgow. Here they learned how to programme robots. The pupils also enjoyed a science workshop run by two deaf scientists.

Within the school we have an ethos of high ambitions. Having a profoundly deaf student teacher working in the school for much of the last two terms had a very positive effect on our pupils’ ambitions.

Next steps:

We plan to take our senior pupils on several visits to working environments where deaf people are employed, for example Rolls Royce; British Deaf Association.

We will continue to provide our pupils with opportunities to ensure that their expectations for future employment are kept high.

Overall quality of our learners’ achievements Highlights of session 2017-18

Pupils have had a large number of opportunities to learn out with the school. For example, they attended the cinema to practise their subtitle reading skills; visited Jurassic Kingdom in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens; attended a number of events organised by the British Deaf Association (Risk Factory, Apple store robotic workshop).

The Primary 6/7 pupils visited St Mark’s primary in Hamilton to run a masterclass in sign language. The whole school and nursery raised money for the school by signing Christmas carols in Asda. Our Primary 7 pupil enjoyed visiting Lockerbie Manor along with his Glenlee mainstream peers. For the first time this year the families of Hamilton School for the Deaf pupils were invited to our

annual Outreach Social Evening. We ran a Family Fun day in the summer holidays for families of Deaf children across the West of

Scotland. Our French Sign Language classes continued this year with our French tutor visiting weekly. Our

pupils are getting quite proficient in FSL. A group of 10 Swedish teachers of the Deaf visited the school to learn from good practice. The

children enjoyed learning some Swedish Sign Language. Our pupils delivered a Deaf Awareness presentation to their Glenlee peers at an assembly.

Comment on strategies that have been successful in engaging with children and young people, staff, parents and the wider community and the impact of these.

Parents had increased opportunities to visit the school. Most parents attended our two parent workshops on literacy with some being involved in the delivery also. Throughout the year parents have being involved in the life of the school by, for example, delivering an art workshop to the P3/4 class and providing a Polish food tasting session throughout the whole school.

We have established new links with two mainstream schools nearby and some pupils visited one to teach sign language to pupils there.

This year we have established links with the community police who have visited the school to deliver sessions on Internet Safety and antibullying.

Pupils visited Frankie and Benny’s where they had the opportunity to make their own healthy pizzas. The whole school have had regular visits to the local cinema where they have enjoyed and practised

accessing films by reading subtitles. The use of Twitter in the school is well established and it has become a very effective way of parents

being more informed of what is happening in school. Our parents have set up a Facebook page which is allowing them opportunities to share information

and give and seek advice. Three members of staff graduated with a PGDE in Deaf Education this session while two members

of staff started the course this year. Good progress in staff signing skills with one member of staff having just completed their level 6 BSL

portfolio and 3 others having made good progress towards achieving their Level 6 qualification. A Care Inspectorate inspection was carried out in the nursery this session with them being awarded

a Very Good and a Good for the two Quality Indicators inspected. We ran a very successful two twilight course entitled, Including Deaf Children in Mainstream

Schools. Over 40 mainstream teachers and other professionals attended from across South Lanarkshire. The feedback was very positive.

Quality Indicator How are we doing? How do we know?School Self-Evaluation

1.1 Self-Evaluation for Self-Improvement

The ethos within the school is one of continuous improvement and there are regular opportunities for professional dialogue. We consult with parents, staff and other agencies. We engage with research to inform improvement. This year we have had more peer observations between staff and some best practice visits.

Areas for development

We will use How Good is OUR school to consult more effectively with our pupils about how they view their school experience and ensure that their views help shape our improvement agenda.

Out improvement plan is based on the findings of our self-evaluation activities

Satisfactory

1.3Leadership of Change

An ethos of much professional dialogue both formal and informal ensures staff’s views are valued and the improvement agenda benefits from diverse expertise and ideas. Staff are increasingly taking on leadership roles with a significant amount of the improvement plan targets being led by class teachers.

Areas for development

We will continue to allow opportunities for staff to take the lead with school developments.

The vast majority of staff led an area of development last year.

Staff are increasingly involved in continuous professional development for example, 4 members of staff are undertaking BSL level 6 qualification, 3 completed their PGDE (Deaf education) and 2 started their PGDE ( Deaf Education) this year.

Good

2.3 Staff are continuing to improve

Learning, teaching and assessment

their signing skills. We are continuously revising our approaches to teaching and learning in line with research into what works and what is important when teaching deaf young people. For example, we have developed a new spelling programme and literacy activities in light of what we have learned. We are introducing Number Talks programme next session for P1/2 pupils.

Area for development

We will investigate Active Literacy to see if it will be beneficial to our pupils. We will be developing writing approaches making use of Write to Talk strategies. Number Talks will be developed for Primary 3.

PEF funding will be used within the school to allow more Inclusion and more targeted one to one support to raise attainment.

Pupils are increasingly able to include with their mainstream class. Our pupils are making good progress.

Good

3.1Ensuring wellbeing, equity and inclusion

We have further increased the number of deaf adults working in the school and visiting to contribute to the curriculum.

Inclusion within Glenlee classrooms has increased.

We are continuing to develop our nurturing approach with all staff increasing their understanding of Adverse Childhood Experiences through in-service training.

More deaf adults working in the school and visiting the school to provide input. Increased number of opportunities for our children to mix with other deaf children, for example our Family Fun Day in July; Outreach Social evening; Church for the Deaf; joint school trip with another deaf school

Satisfactory

We will refresh our staff’s skills on using the Paths programme to ensure all pupils are having weekly opportunities within the curriculum to help them understand their emotions better and how to form positive relationships.

We will investigate further emotional literacy programmes from which our pupils could benefit.

We have arranged our classes next session to allow our senior pupils to spend much of their time in a mainstream classroom in preparation for their move to secondary school.

3.2 Raising attainment and achievement

Staff are well informed about the national poverty related attainment gap as well as the gap that exists between deaf children and their hearing peers from similar SIMDs.Teacher expectation is continuously challenged to ensure that we never use a child’s deafness as an excuse for lower attainment. Raising attainment is understood by staff to be the school’s main focus.

A significant number of our pupils are attaining in line with their mainstream peers. For those who are not, the gap between their attainment and that of their mainstream peers is narrowing.

Good

Overall evaluation of establishment’s capacity for continuous improvement

The ethos within the school is increasingly becoming one of high expectations and continuous improvement. We are making use of the information and ideas gleaned from our self-evaluation processes to continuously make changes to our practices with the aim of improving outcomes for our pupils.

Staff are very aware of the effect poverty and deafness can have on attainment and are committed and motivated to meet the challenges these factors bring to the education process. We now have a strong staff team who have shared vision for the school of high attainment leading to positive outcomes for our pupils.

Signed: Eileen Burns

Date: 14th August 2018