ENHANCING LEARNING THROUGH QUALITY PROVISION: Hitting the ground running
An inaugural free conference for all unqualified and newly qualified teachers of the deaf was held on Monday 1st November at the Arlington Arts Centre, Mary Hare School, Newbury. This conference was funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).
Keynote speeches were presented by Dr Connie Mayer, Associate Professor at the University of York in Toronto (“Changing the Face of Literacy Education for Learners with Hearing Loss”) and Brian Lamb, Public Policy Consultant Specialising in Special Educational Needs and Disability Issues (“Delivering Better Outcomes for Deaf Children: Principles Behind the practice”).
There were a selection of 14 workshops covering a wide variety of topics providing awareness of teaching children who are deaf. These topics included:- Language and Literacy; Listening, Attending and Thinking Skills; Music; Advocating for Resources; Audiology Skills; Working in Partnership with Families; Critical Self Review; Phonics; Use of Play Station Portables; Working with Children with Cochlear Implants.
You can download presentations using the useful links on the right.
We are grateful to all our speakers and workshop leaders for providing such a stimulating day. Some of the following comments are testimony to a very successful conference:-
“I really enjoyed the conference...it was excellent and so was the venue, speakers and hospitality.”
“Thank you for a superb day! It was so interesting and all very relevant.”
“I really enjoyed the conference and it was certainly worth the long drive!”
The event ran well yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
“Thank you for this and thanks to you and all the people involved with such a successful event. I certainly found the day inspiring and educational. There are so many facets to being a Teacher of the Deaf and I have certainly found it a challenge to concentrate on all the different aspects of the job from the moment I was qualified. This conference has helped to highlight some of the issues and needs I could do with focussing on in my practice. I feel that as a consequence of this conference, my practice will be improved and consequently, the outcomes for the children and young people with whom I work.”
“I really enjoyed my day at the conference. Lecturers made lots of interesting points that are related to my current job.”
“I really enjoyed the event. I was just disappointed I didn't get the opportunity to go to all of the workshops as the ones I attended were extremely informative and inspirational!”
“I have enjoyed it all, just a little overwhelmed by the amount of information I’ve been given.”
“Excellent Key-Note Speakers.”
Brian Lamb – Delivering Better Outcomes for Deaf Children: Principles Behind the Practice
Brian Lamb from Mary Hare on Vimeo.
Connie Mayer – The Changing Face of Literacy Education for Learners with Hearing Loss
Connie Mayer from Mary Hare on Vimeo.