School for deaf is a shining example of caring environment
For more than 125 years deaf people living in Derby have been able to access pioneering support thanks to a school which has consistently pushed boundaries. Today, the Royal School for the Deaf continues to lead the way and has become the first school for
LOCKDOWN has had a profound effect on the wellbeing and mental health of the nation as we have all been forced to adjust to periods of isolation, fear of the unknown and the loss of loved ones.
For Derby’s deaf community, which is the largest outside London, the pandemic has been even harder.
Face coverings have made lip reading virtually impossible and a lack of sign language interpreters during the Government briefings has led to confusion and misinformation.
But even before the pandemic started making an impact on our lives, staff at Royal School for the Deaf Derby had been working to bolster the wellbeing of both colleagues and pupils. Now their efforts have been recognised with a gold award, the highest accolade on offer from The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools, making them the first school for deaf children in the UK to receive the award.
The Ashbourne Road school was found to be “excelling” in each of the eight categories analysed during the assessment and the examiner described the school as “a warm environment, with a family feeling and is a nice place to work”, adding that staff feel that there is no hierarchy and that they have strong relationships with pupils’ families.
She was particularly impressed with the way the school dealt with lockdown, ensuring that children could access live lessons and social opportunities online so that they could still feel connected.
And she praised the school’s therapy team who organise weekly groups for primary pupils, secondary and post-16, looking at topics including how to feel good and look after yourself.
The school’s designated senior lead for mental health, Lucy Noble, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have been awarded gold status. We work exceptionally hard to provide wellbeing support for our pupils because we recognise that deaf children are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues.
“It can be extremely isolating when you struggle to communicate with other people – whether that’s your own family, medical professionals or the community in general.
“Lockdown has been a challenging time for everyone and so to receive this accolade after such a demanding time is even more rewarding.” According to leading deaf health charity SignHealth, up to 50% of the deaf community in Britain experience mental health problems, with rates of anxiety, depression, and low selfesteem almost double that of hearing people.
Deafness itself is not a cause of the problems, but other factors – such as the inability to communicate – are significant. More than 90% of deaf or hard of hearing children are born into hearing families and yet nationally only one in 10 of those parents will learn to sign.
It was with figures like these in mind that the school began to prioritise positive wellbeing as much as academic education, recognising that you can’t have one without the other.
The school works alongside a wide range of external agencies such as the Deaf Children and Adult Mental Health Team, whose framework is based on early intervention, and the Royal Association for the Deaf on a range of projects including money management and how to support deaf young people to access resources.
It also hosts family workshops with the National Deaf Children’s Society and is trialling surveys and projects on its behalf, while it has also connected with the charity, Sign Health to deliver online wellbeing training for staff.
The school also provides wellbeing workshops for sixth formers, using a £2,000 donation from the Gerard Pearse Foundation to allow them to be offered in sign language.
And it employs a part-time child psychologist and two deaf qualified art therapists, who are role models for success and have a first-hand understanding of the challenges faced by deaf children.
Three pupils in the secondary school and two in primary have received training to become antistigma ambassadors and the school offers yoga and meditation, mindfulness colouring and special a assemblies to explain the importance of talking about mental health.
Pupil Brady White, 14, is one of the sc school’s ambassadors. He said: “Our jo job is to support people who feel sad o or down and help them to talk about it it. Other pupils know they can come a and talk to us if they have something th that’s getting them down.”
Thirteen-year-old Isabel Ash added: “We have given special assemblies to pupils explaining that if they are feeling emotional or having a hard time they need to talk about it.
“We’ve explained to people what mental health is and how it is just as important as physical health.”
Headteacher Helen Shepherd sits on the Derby City working group for SEND and on the Derby Opportunity Area working groups for Post-16 and for transition. At a regional level, she is chair of the Children’s Hearing Services Working Group for Derby and Derbyshire.
She said: “Deaf children are parti ticularly vulnerable to mental health is issues, because it can be extremely is isolating when you struggle to communicate with other people – whether that’s your own family, medical professionals or the community in general.
“We pride ourselves on ensuring all our children are listened to, can express their views and are understood and we prioritise emotional wellbeing as much as academic learning.
“We aim to create a generation of resilient, healthy and confident individuals and equipping our youngsters with strategies to help them recognise the signs and cope with mental illness is all part of this work.
“Students need education to
Deaf children are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues.
Helen Shepherd
include how to understand and look after their mental health – just like we learn how to look after our physical health. By shifting the focus to preventing mental health problems and building resilience we can do so much to improve the lives of deaf people.”
The award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead.
The scheme aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK’s education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances.
Professor Damien Page, Dean of Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education, said: “Achieving this award is not just recognition of a whole-school approach to mental health, it’s a recognition of the school’s commitment to improving the life chances of children.
“We’re truly proud to have worked with Royal School for the Deaf Derby in this vital work and look forward to further collaboration.”
Nationally, more than 800 schools have signed up to take part in the mental health award.
Dean Johnstone, founder and CEO of Minds Ahead, said: “This award shines a light on the excellent work schools are doing to promote mental health for their community of children and adults.
“It is thrilling and humbling to learn about Royal School for the Deaf Derby and the many other schools engaged in the quality award process. I’d like to offer my congratulations on this deserved recognition.”