Elmfield School for Deaf Children

Elmfield School for Deaf Children Special Edition Newsletter March 2010

Dear parent/carer,

This newsletter is to bring you up to date with some decisions that have been made to enable Elmfield School to work well while we are without a Headteacher after Ros Way leaves us at the end of this term.

The Governors have made these arrangements for the next two terms. We had hoped these temporary arrangements would only be for one term, but we have decided that we need to wait until Bristol City Council has finished their review of education for Deaf children before we advertise for a replacement for Ros. (PTO to read about the review)

We are very glad that Kate Murray has agreed to take on the role of Acting Head. At the moment Kate is Deputy Head and knows the school well.

Kate Murray will be supported by Kate Fogwill who will be Acting Deputy Head

There will also be two Acting Assistant Heads: Ellie Goodson in Primary and Elaine Bush in Secondary:

Together, we believe these four will make an excellent team to lead Elmfield School through the next two terms and we are sure that everyone – staff, parents, carers and children – will give them all the support they need.

Gill Behenna Chair of Governors Bristol City Council review We want to let you know about a Review that Bristol City Council is carrying out to look at educational provision for Deaf and hearing impaired children. The council, in consultation with Elmfield School and others, has asked independent researchers (i.e. not from the Council) to carry out the review. Two reviewers will be getting in touch with some parents, teachers, pupils, ex-pupils and others with an interest in Deaf education. The reviewers will be asking for thoughts and feelings about what is already provided and what people would like to be provided in the future. The reviewers will also talk to some of the other educational authorities that send children to Bristol schools. The reviewers may send you letters or emails. They will also organise some face-to-face interviews and some meetings with groups of people. The review will start in mid-March and will be finished at the start of June. The reviewers will write a report and make recommendations . The report will go to the Council so that they can work to improve the education they offer to Deaf children. The two reviewers are Malcolm Garner and Tim Silvester. We hope that everyone will be glad to meet Tim and Malcolm and will give them all the help they need to complete their work.

Malcolm Garner Malcolm has been a teacher of the deaf for 40 years. After starting work in Birmingham he moved to Bristol and worked at Elmfield School for two years, then opened a secondary resource base for deaf children in Yate. From there he moved back to Birmingham as Deputy Head of Longwill School for the Deaf but before long returned to Bristol and Avon as Head of External Services for the Deaf, a post he held for eight years. Following this he was Head of Services in Staffordshire for thirteen years and then Head of Service in Birmingham for a further six years, before retiring from full time work in 2007. Malcolm has previously been an OFSTED Inspector and is now a Quality Assurance Consultant for the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme. He has recently undertaken a number of other part-time consultancy projects in the UK and is also actively involved in developing deaf education and opportunities for deaf people in The Gambia, West Africa, a country he has visited fourteen times in the past five years! Malcolm now lives in Worcestershire and has three grown up children.

Tim Silvester Tim was the Head of the Service for deaf and hearing impaired pupils and students in Derbyshire for seven years before moving to become the Principal of the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby. This day and residential school catered for deaf children and students from ages 3 to 19. The school used the two languages of BSL and English and employed many deaf staff. Tim was there from 1991 until 2005. Since leaving RSD, he has worked as an Education Consultant with the NHSP's Quality Assurance programme from its beginning in 2006. He has also undertaken a number of projects for the NDCS and has worked as a regional tutor for Leeds University's Teacher of the Deaf Training Programme. Tim still lives in Derby and has two grown up sons who live in London.