Archived decisions

MEDSTEAD SCHOOL DEPUTATION

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE PRC - 13 FEBRUARY 2007

Good morning, Chairman, Members of the Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen I am Catherine Simons, a parent at of three at Medstead. This is:

- Wendy Labrosse, parent of five, two were Hearing Impaired pupils at Medstead.

- Pat Brough, Leader of Medstead Pre-School.

- Kim Griggs- parent governor

First, thank you very much for this opportunity to explain why we believe your recommendation to close Medstead Total Communication Unit should be reversed in order to meet the needs of a specific sector of Hearing Impaired children in NE Hampshire.

Your quoted reasons for proposing closure of Medstead are that it fails to meet two criteria for the review of resourced provision - it does not have a linked secondary school with resourced provision and it is not accessible to a large number of pupils because of its rural location.

The first of these is now not mentioned in your statement. We assume you do not see this as a problem. Far more important is the transition of children from 3 years into Primary school. This link at Medstead is enabling children to develop friendships, self confidence and self-esteem with their peer groups at this vital stage of development.

It is equally important to offer the choice of school based on the priorities parents themselves have for their children - the choice of an exceptional academic environment over a more local provision, for example.

It is also important to offer the choice of a small rural environment, conducive to conquering specific behavioural and emotional needs linked to hearing issues.

Removing such choices from parents, which is what would happen if Medstead were closed, would go against the government's commitment to "Every Child Matters".

It would fly in the face of your stated aim - to pay particular attention to ensuring that children with special needs and with disabilities receive all the services available to support them and enable them to achieve the best they can.

Some of you are involved in the current Joint Area Review looking for evidence, that the LEA is doing all it can to optimise its efforts for this group of children, so please listen to this.

Medstead is being chosen by parents of a particular subset of deaf and Hearing Impaired children - those who on top of deafness, have additional special needs which mean other provisions have not worked for them, or are not, considered, likely to help them thrive.

We have children whose physical and emotional needs, mean that the embedded culture of expert signing here is fundamental to their ability to learn to communicate.

Such expertise and signing culture threaded through everything in the school cannot be built up overnight, or even in three or four years. And even if another provision is built to recreate this, the success of Medstead, is much more than the sum of its parts, based on its culture as much as its expertise.

Two of my children both have deaf children in their classes, and they can see those children thriving at Medsteadban environment which offers them respect, protection, space to grow, joy and a fierce sense of belonging. My children play football, tag rugby and netball with their Hearing Impaired peers. They act in plays together. They sign together in carol concerts.

They go on trips together. These experiences are what has helped Medstead's Hearing Impaired pupils learn to communicate and build up the confidence and self esteem that will carry them through the rest of their lives.

The fulfilling peer network created here is worth far more, than anything that depends merely upon communication technique or the number of Hearing Impaired children in any one year group.

One of the 20 stated priorities in the Children and Young People Partnership is "increased access to excellent general education". Ofsted reports and SATS results show Medstead's position as academically the best performing school in North Hampshire with an Hearing Impaired unit.

Its excellent teaching should be accessible to Hearing Impaired children as well as normal hearing pupils.

We understand that Medstead is not part of a geographical equidistant triangle of Hearing Impaired units.

We also understand that you recognised the value Medstead brings as a special case and originally recommended maintaining this unit in addition to the triangle, until other units could be seen to fulfil the need Medstead fills now.

Your most recent recommendation says the decision as to whether to keep Medstead in the interim is not an obvious one either way.

We ask you please to revert to your original recommendation that it would be safer to maintain what is working in Medstead until you know for sure you can meet every child's needs elsewhere.

Whatever other options the LEA chooses, Medstead should remain - at least until a proven alternative is up and running.

Medstead offers two vital things that others do not, which some children cannot do without: expert signing within a total communication environment. An environment conducive to learning in children with very special needs.

The fact that Medstead offers something different from the model the LEA recommends is part of the reason why it should be kept - to preserve choice for those who need it.

The value of the expert signing Medstead provides should not be underestimated. There will always be children who either cannot have cochlea implants or who cannot fully exploit them and who will still need strong signing support. There is not yet any conclusive medical evidence that the number of such children will continue to decline beyond the very small sample seem so far. It is premature to act so irreversibly on such data yet.

Just last month a family visited us who are interested in their child joining our pre-school and primary school. The child was born without the aural nerve necessary for an implant. He will always need signing, and his parents, who live in Basingstoke, feel Medstead is the only school with sufficient expertise in this area.

Another child, has cochlea implants, but is thriving here because of the expert balance between signing and auditory support. Another physical medical condition he has makes purely auditory communication too intense for him. his parents chose Medstead for precisely this reason.

There will always be children who become deaf from meningitis, and they have a short window of opportunity for implants before bone structure ossifies and makes this option impossible. Such children will always need expert signing provision.

Interestingly and less well understood, children with complex special needs on top of their hearing impairment, especially behavioural needs, thrive in an environment in which signing is strongly embedded.

Medstead has several such children, all making much better progress than they could elsewhere. However, what makes Medstead unique is the combination of its Total Communication Unit with its small, caring environment. The whole school environment is vital to development of confidence and emotional well-being for all pupils, including the most vulnerable.

Parents choose Medstead precisely for its size, its rural location, the linked, same site pre-school with Hearing Impaired provision and BSL qualified staff, and for its record of establishing peer networks which continue well into working life. They choose this without hesitation over proximity to their own homes.

At least eight families chose Medstead over more local facilities at Farnborough & Basingstoke because they were convinced the communication support and environment were more suitable here. Three more children transferred to Medstead from local units which were not meeting the children's needs. Two had become troubled, and the other had fallen behind. All settled and progressed very well after the move. We could show you several examples of children who entered Medstead's pre-school unable to talk or communicate and who were consequently disruptive or isolated, who within two or three years could speak intelligibly, and whose confidence and ability to relate to others has had a dramatic effect on their academic performance.

Children can address their challenges at Medstead in a safe, consistent environment from early learning at three until 11 years. BSL trained staff working in pre-school and school manage the transition at 45 to school, at a time when communication skills are still nascent and confidence can be fragile. Such an environment optimises children's progress, and continuity at this stage is much more important than it is once communication skills and self esteem have been established, which they should have been by the time a child reaches 11.

This is borne out by what their parents are choosing.

They didn't choose an inclusive secondary because a different stage brings different needs. If distance was an issue, they wouldn't have gone to Medstead in the first place.

Parents of Hearing Impaired children have the right to retain that choice, and Hearing Impaired children have the right to the educational opportunities that choice offers them.

Decisions on future provision should focus on what will meet children's needs best, and since the majority of the cost of provision is in the teaching, with a fixed recommended ratio of pupils to teachers, the overall cost to the LEA should not be a factor in the decision as long as teaching ratios are optimal.Medstead has regularly operated at or around the optimal ratio and we are confident that demand will remain consistent or even rise were the LEA to start acknowledging Medstead as an option.

It has been suggested that were demand for Medstead to be encouraged, other units' viability would be challenged. We hope this will not have a bearing on any decisions. A school's popularity - based on quality of provision, emotional health of pupils and educational results - cannot be a reason to close it!

So, in summary:

Medstead satisfies LEA educational requirements for auditoryoral support as well as for signing, and location and lack of linked secondary cannot be compelling enough reasons to close its Total Communication Unit.

Medstead's unique provision meets the needs of some children which cannot be met anywhere else and will not be met anywhere else without many years' effort and investment. The needs of every child should be taken account ofin recommendations, and they are not currently.

The LEA should evaluate their conclusions in relation to the effect recommendations will have on parents'stated priorities for their children, which are very different from those stated by the LEA.

We understand how difficult it is to meet everyone's needs within a single system, but ask only that no decision is made to close the provision at Medstead unless, and until, an alternative is up and running, which is proven to meet the needs of those who would otherwise thrive at Medstead. We also invite everyone of you to visit our school at any time before you come to a decision to see how well it performs.

Thank you very much indeed for your attention on such a difficult issue. We appreciate your efforts to make the right decisions.