Count us in: Achieving success for deaf pupils is a timely report. It comes when schools are becoming more confident in dealing with a wide range of additional support for learning needs. Schools are also more aware that they need to personalise experiences in order to meet pupils’ learning needs. The report does point to strengths that schools can build on. I am delighted that HMIE can use its inspection evidence both to paint an evaluative picture of the experiences of deaf pupils from a sample of schools while also providing advice on how to improve young people’s experiences. This combination of evaluation and advice for improvement is a powerful one.
I also welcome the opportunity to have worked in partnership again with a national body, this time the National Deaf Children’s Society. Such partnerships can work very well in making provision for specific groups of pupils better.
This report is part of a wider series being produced by HMIE to follow up our seminal document on inclusion – Count us in – which provided a broad view of inclusion and took thinking forward significantly. Generally speaking, highly effective schools do well by all their pupils as we have spelled out in the different parts of The Journey to Excellence series. We are currently undertaking a range of tasks that put services for particular groups of pupils under the microscope and will report publicly in a variety of ways – short-life leaflets, on-line good practice resources, and publications such as this one. Thereafter, we will synthesise our experiences and conclusions and re-visit the concepts outlined within Count us in to determine if the context in which schools work has moved on such that refreshed general advice on inclusion is needed.
In the meantime, I trust that this publication helps teachers, support staff and managers to make the experiences of deaf children in our schools better.
Graham Donaldson
HM Senior Chief Inspector