Election addresses by nominees to the BATOD National Executive Council 2024-26

There was one candidate for President Elect: Claire Jacks and she is hereby elected to the post

I am currently the Assistant Head Hearing Team Leader for Bolton Sensory Support Service. We are a team of six QToDs and a Qualified MSI teacher. 

I started my career as a Household Insurance Underwriter. However, when I was made redundant, I used the redundancy package to train as a teacher at London South Bank University. I worked in a mainstream primary for several years before getting a job as an unqualified teacher of the deaf in a primary resource base. I loved it! And decided to undertake the mandatory qualification to become a QToD with the University of Birmingham.  

My family and I moved to Lancashire and shortly after the move, I started work at Thomasson Memorial School for the Deaf. In 2008, I became a Peripatetic QToD. In 2012, I gained a place on the Mary Hare/ Oxford Brookes University PGCE course to specialise in Early Years and Deafness, I took this a little further and gained my Master’s Degree.  I have continued to embrace new challenges, working on secondment with Rochdale Additional Needs Service, as a consultant in Lancashire, as a consultant with the NDCS and as a teaching placement supervisor with both the University of Manchester and the University of Birmingham.   

I attended the BATOD North Study Day for several years and in 2016, I joined the BATOD North Committee. I was elected as Chair of BATOD North Committee in 2019 and elected to the NEC that same year. I currently chair the PR group for the NEC.  

Sibel Djemal

Tina Wakefield

I have had over 30 years experience in teaching, 25 in teaching deaf children. My experience ranges from originally being a class teacher, a secondary school SENCo, and then a QToD working in a variety of integrated resources and peripatetic settings. I then managed a large service for Deaf Children.

I am at present an educational consultant working mainly for NDCS and as a teaching practice supervisor for several universities. I have recently been involved in the creation of an Apprenticeship for Teachers of the Sensory Impaired and the new Specialist Deaf Curriculum Framework.

I am a governor of a primary school with a high level of SEND and social deprivation, and was previously a governor of a Teaching Hospitals Trust with particular interest in disability equality.

I have been involved in the development of testing and ensuring fair access for deaf children for many years working with the DfE and STA.

I have a deteriorating hearing loss, now severe, and feel this has helped me to understand the personal challenges met every day by deaf children and young people and their families.

I have always been a keen member of BATOD and really appreciate the  hard work carried out by this organisation for the profession.