My Life Without Hearing Blog 2 - My Education

My education

I remember for the three years I was at the old school in Friargate I would cry and cling onto my mum because I didn’t want to go in the taxi to school. She had been able to travel with me as a one off to get me used to it, but after that I was on my own in the taxi until the school moved. When the Royal School for the Deaf Derby moved to its current site on Ashbourne Road, Princess Margaret was there for the official opening. When we moved there we had a lot of new teachers, and there were lots of new children to get to know, too. Also, for the first time I had other children travelling in the taxi with me. Every day there were problems with people arguing in the taxi, which was really annoying after travelling on my own before. 

My favourite teachers

My favourite teacher was Mr Owusu. He was a very kind man, and he played with me and helped me. He was from Africa, and I was spellbound by the bright and colourful African clothes which he wore for a Christmas party once, as it was nothing like anything I had every seen before. My parents even invited him over to my house for tea once, as they liked him very much. He told us that his father was a tribal chief in Africa and it was fascinating to learn about his culture. I was very sad when he left. 

When I moved to primary school my teacher was Miss Beeston, who later got married and became Mrs Smith. She was also a lovely lady, who helped me a lot. She would give me presents when my work was good, and I found this a real incentive to word hard and do good work. 

Senior Schools

When I moved on to the senior school I was very nervous on my first day, because all of the other children were taller than me. My first teacher there was Mrs Wall, who was lovely but also very strict. I remember learning interesting topics like the environment. Unfortunately, the education at the deaf school wasn’t as good as it is now. My mum complained because she wanted things to improve, but in the end, when I was aged 14, she decided to move me to Needwood School, near Burton-on-Trent. This was a hard of hearing school, and I was broken hearted because fewer of the children signed – many were completely oral. Sometimes the children would bully me because I used British Sign Language and I was different from them. Also the teachers used speech, which I wasn’t able understand. I would go home every night and cry.  When I was finally able to leave aged 16 I was so happy. I wanted to leave in May, but my mum made me finish the year and stay till July.

Please read my next blog when I will talk about my time at Doncaster College and how things improved for me, as well as when I went on an American student exchange.