Student Christmas Event

It was 20 years ago when one of my students first suggested that the class should get together for a Christmas drink, and it was a huge success, so it became something I arranged each year since. It was a great opportunity for students to meet with people with different levels of British Sign Language (BSL) skills. Of course, it's very early days for Level 1 students who have only been signing for a couple of months, but everyone is very friendly and happy to help them.

From students originally asking for a get-together, over the years this developed into me setting up an annual Christmas event. I was very lucky in 2019 that my local landlord was happy to give me a room to use, and we were able to have a buffet. I was even allowed to bring my own Christmas lights and decorations for the room. 

Students of all levels came along to the Christmas event to socialise and brush up their British Sign Language skills. Everybody wore their best Christmas jumpers—something we didn't have 20 years ago. We had lots of deaf-friendly activities. We signed carols, splitting the students into three groups to learn three different songs with my support. We played bingo and pass the parcel. Of course, we didn't stop the music to let people know when to unwrap the parcel as this was a deaf-friendly activity—we flashed the lights. We had a Christmas Quiz with a prize for the winner and guessed how many sweets were in the jar. I also often invite deaf friends along so that students can see different deaf people signing and have the opportunity to talk to them. I encouraged them to talk about their plans for Christmas and New Year, which was a great way of developing their vocabulary. Everyone had fun, and didn't even realise that they were learning and improving their British Sign Language and deaf awareness skills at the same time. This is the kind of fun activity you can expect as a student in my class—it all adds to the experience. 

Sadly, that was the last Christmas we were able to hold our social event there, as the pub wasn't able to survive the effects of the pandemic and later closed down. 

Join me for my next blog when I will explain how the pandemic has affected the deaf community in particular.