Hearing Impaired Provision
The Hearing Impaired Provision was purpose built and opened in 1971. It continues to provide for hearing impaired children living in Central Bedfordshire, who have hearing losses ranging from moderate to profound. The Provision has a qualified Teacher of the Deaf our NNEB also provides out reach support for hearing impaired pre-school children and their families and trained Educational Communicators who support the inclusion of the children within the school. Our Hearing Impaired Provision is also affiliated to the Parkfields Middle School Learning support unit which ensures ongoing support through to Year 8. (See also Parkfields learning support).
The Provision within Toddington St George school has a Total Communication Philosophy which means a variety of methods are used to communicate with the children including speech, signing and finger spelling, depending upon the individual needs of each child. The children wear hearing aids and some have cochlear implants. They also wear personal radio aids in school where the teacher wears a transmitter and the child a receiver.
The children join their hearing peers in class supported by Educational Communicators. Each child is withdrawn into the Provision for part of their timetable to develop their language and communication skills. They are monitored by the Speech and Language Therapist and are visited by the Educational Audiologist on a regular basis.
