The Deaf Education Team (Dr Helen Chilton and Lindsey Jones)

The Deaf Education team trains qualified teachers to take up specialist roles as Teachers of the Deaf (ToD). The course has existed since 1919 and continuously evolves to meet the changing demands of their learners and the deaf children and their families that they serve. In their submission this smallteam outlined their innovative use of technology to quality assure teaching placement observations over a wide geographic area.

The team introduced remote supervision using Swivl technology allowed remote supervision of student placements, regardless of where they may be, to ensure a high-quality learning experience. In this, they are currently unique among UK providers. This technology became invaluable when the Covid-19 pandemic prevented placement supervisors from entering schools. Other providers were forced to defer student placements be the team at UoM used Swivl to allow students to successfully complete their placements using remote supervision. Students highlighted the exceptional support they had received and emphasised how remote supervision had allowed them to complete their placements where their peers in other institutions had not. The Ovingdean Foundation commended the team in writing, which was shared across the School of Health Sciences as an example of good practice. The team continued to train students through the pandemic, modelling flexible learning approaches to their students, and they were able to graduate more ToDs than any other provider ensuring deaf children’s needs continued to be met nationwide.

The nomination also detailed how the excellent reputation of the Deaf Education Team had enabled them to secure bursaries to ensure future generations of ToDs, helping to address a national recruitment drive.