Teaching practice which facilitates access to the curriculum, social/emotional development and class participation. Information and guidance can be found at NDCS and Council for Disabled Children.

Involve the HI Team in completion of baseline assessments and development of IEP.

School must access specific deaf related training/opportunities for modelling of suggested strategies by HI Team/Qualified Teacher of the Deaf (QToD).

Access to wider training for staff.

Teachers must implement advice as suggested by the Qualified Teacher of the Deaf (QToD) related to:

·         The modification to the presentation of assessments;

·         Targets;

·         And curriculum and teaching methods.

Provide access to a quiet room for sessions/visits by Qualified Teacher of the Deaf, specialist TA or audiologist.

Curriculum plan reflects levels of achievement and must include individually focused IEP. Child involved in setting and monitoring their own targets.

Access to daily group teaching of key skills such as phonics/key vocabulary and social skills.

Opportunities for explanation, clarification and reinforcement of lesson content and language. Opportunity to pre-learn vocabulary before it is used lessons (e.g. topic-specific).

Clear visual instructions or checklists used. Routines kept simple, clear and consistent.

Attention given to seating, lighting and acoustics in the classroom and around the school. Staff should be in the light when speaking. The child should be seated away from busy areas and close to the source sound to enable clear sight of action delivery.

Opportunities for individual and small group work in a quiet room.

Specific interventions for language development, speaking and listening and phonics learning e.g. Lip reading, Auditory Verbal Therapy, Natural Aural Approach, Cued Speech, Sign Language, Total Communication Approach, those contained within guidance documents from NDCS.

A key person who is trained in working with children with a hearing impairment and understands hearing equipment to:

·         Reinforce lesson content.

·         Deliver modified curriculum tasks.

·         Support language development.

·         Daily check of child’s hearing aids.

Develop peer awareness e.g. sign-language club at break-time. Talking to children about the experiences of a child with HI and normalising hearing aids (e.g. comparing them to a child wearing glasses to help them see).

Opportunities for group interventions to develop social inclusion with peers e.g. Circle of Friends.

Advice from other professionals e.g. Speech and Language Therapist, Cochlear Implant Programmes as appropriate.

School must use subtitles on all audio resources e.g. TV and DVDs. Access to transcripts where there are no subtitles.

Use of equipment and technology, including: use of radio aids/soundfield speaker systems as appropriate to meet assessed needs. Also seek advice about how to link equipment to Interactive White Boards, computers, iPads etc.

Visits away from the setting are planned well in advance and takes into consideration the child’s needs.