BATOD Association Magazine 2026
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Please note the BATOD magazine is part of the BATOD membership offer. Just as we ask in the magazine to not share the paper copies with non-members, please do NOT share the electronic copy of the magazine with non-members, this includes on university social media platforms; NatSIP HoSS, Deafeduk, Scottish Sensory Centre forums, or other public access platforms. Most articles are available as a standalone copy and can be requested via the Editor, Susie Marques ([email protected])
March 2026 issue
RESOURCED PROVISIONS
Reflecting on what makes a high-quality ARP for deaf learners 2
Leanne Chorekdjian-Jojaghaian is a dual QToD and SENCo at Kingsbury Green Primary School and presents her call to action for retaining specialist resource provisions which offer a unique vantage point standing at the meeting place between specialist deaf education and mainstream schooling.
Musings from an RP QToD 5
Marie Pearson, a Qualified Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People (QToD) based in a deaf resource provision in a primary school, reflects on her journey to date and describes some of the Bricks of her toolkit – including reading skills, English grammar, vocabulary development – and how they offer a breadth of ideas and approaches, allowing her to keep things fresh for different pupils.
Quality Standards for Resourced Provisions 2026: Process, Purpose and Practice 6
David Canning, BATOD Project coordinator, and members of the BATOD Special Interest Group for Resource provisions share an overview of the revised standards which have been developed to provide a clear, professionally owned structure for defining, evaluating, and strengthening quality in specialist resourced provision.
Nova’s Big Read Project: Developing a culture of reading in a deaf resource base 8
Cat Worrall, a second-year trainee Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People (ToD) at Birmingham University, shares how her specialist deaf resource base in a mainstream primary school (Nova Primary Academy’s Deaf Hub, Peterborough) encourages its pupils to develop a love of stories and reading.
Resource provisions in England: what the data tells us 12
Ian Noon, Strategy Lead for the National Deaf Children’s Society, summarises the results from a survey of local authorities in England in 2024. At the time of the survey in 2024, there were 217 resource provisions in England across primary and secondary phases and the update by BATOD of quality standards for resource provisions provides an important opportunity to explore how any inconsistencies in support and commissioning that aren’t in the best interests of deaf children can be addressed.
The power of a pod 14
Helen Roberts, headteacher and special educational needs coordinator (SENDCo), reports on the Simple Acoustic pod at Rampton Primary School. The design of the pod was totally led by the student’s needs, ensuring there was enough space for her wheelchair as well as her teaching assistant (TA) and equipment. Its integration transformed this child’s world overnight!
Deaf, not ‘hearing impaired’: The power of words 17
Michelle Atkinson, a Qualified Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People (QToD) and a deaf mother of deaf children reminds us that language matters – from a hearing perspective, the term hearing impaired frames deafness as a lack, a ‘can’t’ measured against a hearing standard. From a deaf perspective, it’s much simpler: we don’t hear. That’s it. Just a difference, not a deficiency.
smiLE in action: Interaction that counts 19
smiLE in action: Interaction that counts
Jenna Quirk and Linda Montgomery, Qualified Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (QToDs), and Karin Schamroth, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (SaLT), describe the journey to implementing smiLE Therapy into their school setting where it fitted well with the school values of Acceptance, Respect, and Teamwork and gave us the go-ahead for training. smiLE Therapy is now embedded in their school improvement plan.
How do you connect? Exploring the digital lives of deaf children 23
Jaime Cohen, retired Qualified Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People (QToD), Ulrike Thomas, Research Associate, School of Education, Newcastle University, and Ellie James, undergraduate student, Newcastle University, discuss their pilot study about deaf children’s use of digital technology to connect with others, and consider the potential it offers for inclusion.
Our experiences and what we shared about deaf awareness for our son 27
A mother of a deaf child shares her perspectives on her son’s education and her constant regret about knowing he is not receiving equal opportunities in education. She has always wanted him and other deaf children to be able to have access to education through fluent language role models and are constantly puzzled with the apparent difficulties that schools have in employing fluent signing deaf teachers.
Adapting audiological assessment for learners with complex needs 30
Kate Ellor, Senior Audiologist, reports on a case study from Seashell Trust assessing the hearing of a young person with Down syndrome which illustrates how adapted approaches, combined with partnership working, enabled successful hearing assessment for the student who was previously unable to access routine audiology services.
GENERAL
Norfolk Deaf Festival 33
Eleanor Craik, who is a producer of the Norfolk Deaf Festival, reports on this summer’s festival in June which has the ethos: educate, empower, engage and connect and has the strapline of ‘Whatever your hearing loss, you are not alone.’
Teaching Shakespeare to Deaf Learners: The Definitive Guide 35
Following the success of their first book about teaching English to Deaf learners, BATOD members Rich Evans and Lee Fullwood have published a second book that focuses on the teaching of Shakespeare and deals with the literary study of Shakespeare and considers how best to teach selected works to Deaf learners and to strive to be ambitious with content and not shy away from more challenging subject matter.
BSL Inclusion Team at Twinkl 38
The new team introduce themselves and how they see their roles at Twinkl, ensuring that every child and young person who uses their resources feels represented, supported, and valued through the products they create. With years of years of experience in working with deaf children, they are excited about the opportunity to work alongside the team of highly experienced and passionate colleagues in the field of BSL.
Raising awareness of glue ear 40
Ginny Parker and Amy Cowan share an overview of their awareness poster designed for staffrooms in Northumberland which is just one of a number of things to address concerns that children with mild hearing loss, particularly those with persistent glue ear, might be getting missed and strengthen awareness across schools and early years settings
Groundbreaking training to deliver inclusive relationships and sex education 42
Dolly Padalia, CEO of School of Sexuality Education (SSE), describes their pilot training programme specifically for Qualified Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (QToDs) exploring topics including bodily changes during puberty, self-care, healthy relationships, consent (online and offline), and coercive control.
British Deaf Association (BDA) Scotland – Know Your Rights Workshops 44
James Barnes-Miller shares an overview of the bespoke training sessions designed for Deaf young people to understand what they are entitled to throughout their educational journeys enabling them to feel empowered and confident in expressing how their needs should be met within schools, further education settings, and local public services.
A decade of progress Under the BSL (Scotland) Act 2015 46
British Deaf Association (BDA) Scotland provide an overview of their work supporting the delivery of the Scottish Government’s BSL National Plan 2023–2029 and the development of BSL Local Plans, which are built around ten priority areas and forty-five actions.
History and politics of deafness 49
Meghan Luton, a PhD student exploring the maternity and motherhood experiences of deaf BSL-using women, explores an overview of deaf-related history and discuss the competing ideas of deafness as a disability or deafness as a culture to lend context to issues faced by women accessing maternity services.
COURSE PROVIDERS
University of Edinburgh ToD course: Postgraduate Diploma in Inclusive Education (deaf learners pathway) 52
Rachel O’Neill outlines the current course offerings at the University of Edinburgh which is about some of the core functions of ToDs: understanding language policies, knowing about how notetaking, captions, interpreting, and classroom acoustics work in relation to deaf pupils, and considering different types of individual plans across the UK.
Raising standards in deaf education: Professional training, partnership, and sector impact 54
Sarah Davis and Dr Joy Rosenberg share their annual update from deaf education mandatory qualification course providers offering the Mandatory Qualification (MQ) for Teachers of D/deaf Children and Young People (ToD) and the UK’s only Educational Audiology postgraduate programme.
University of Birmingham MA/MQ in Education of Children with Multi-Sensory Impairments 57
Hester Richardson shares their annual update from multi-sensory impairment education mandatory qualification course providers and feedback tells us that we have maintained the rigour of the Quality Standards the programme is built around but have also delivered the learning required in a way that is accessible, flexible, and designed to fit the needs of learners who are balancing home, family, study, and work.
Mandatory qualification in multi-sensory impairment 60
Caireen Sutherland and Michelle Jones share their annual update from multi-sensory impairment education mandatory qualification course providers, the Seashell course has been designed, developed, and is delivered with diversity of choice and approach in mind to those interested in training in MSI/deafblindness. The course is designed to fit round busy, working lives and to ensure there is practical application of the learning for teachers from the moment they start the course.
Become a QToD with the University of Leeds 62
Helen Niemec, Caroline Chettleburgh, and Prof Ruth Swanwick outline the current course offerings at the University of Leeds which are now even more streamlined, coherent, and responsive to developments across deaf education and the wider educational landscape and designed to help you progress confidently and successfully through the course and graduate as a QToD with a strong contemporary understanding of the field.
Manchester Deaf Education 65
Dr Lindsey Jones and Dr Helen Chilton, Senior Lecturers in Deaf Education, share their annual update from deaf education mandatory qualification course providers and show how they lay secure foundations to develop students’ knowledge, skills, and understanding of language and communication, literacy and audiology providing multiple opportunities for students to apply learning to real life contexts.
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE
Respecting the impact of hearing loss and harnessing modern technologies 67
Joseph Manjaly, Consultant Otologist, describes bone conduction hearing devices and implants in 2026 which involves weighing up the aims and benefits of surgery against the complexity and risk and encouraging traineesto recognise and validate with patients the hidden functional impact – listening in noise, the head shadow effect, high listening effort, and difficulty localising sound, as well as the broader impact on education and mental health.
BATOD Acoustic Quality Standards 2026 72
David Canning, QToD and Educational Audiologist, on behalf of BATOD, led on the consultation and revised publication that articulates Process, Purpose, and Practice which shows how the revised BATOD Acoustic Standards have been developed to provide a clear, professionally owned framework for defining and evaluating acoustic quality in educational settings serving deaf CYP.
Deaf studies: topics and information 74
The Deaf Studies module has taken the four outcomes from the Deaf Studies module as part of the ToD course in Scotland, and applied them there. However, the Deaf studies working group came up with topics that we felt would be beneficial to our BATOD members and other professionals in deaf education, there is a total of 12 topics which will be delivered as part of a pilot over 18 months–2 years.
ASSOCIATION BUSINESS
Strengthening best practice in deaf education 78
Jessica Rosser provides a summary of the ‘Lived experience and deaf identity’ theme from the BATOD South West (England) Conference at Elmfield School for Deaf Children and brought together professionals from across the region for a day of rich insight, reflection, and forward-thinking discussion.
BATOD North (England) Study Day 80
Kim Davies provides an overview of the 2025 Study Day ‘Deaf education: Crafting connections’ themed event which included a presentation by Imy Harris, followed by workshop choices ‘Making sense of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder in infants’; ‘National Deaf Children’s Society – Keeping it REAL’; ‘Deafness and dyslexia’; and three Manchester Alumni presentations.
BATOD SA&EAAQG 84
BATOD Statutory assessment and examination access arrangements working group outlines its work providing support, guidance, and resources, and shaping equitable assessment practices for deaf CYP from source with the awarding bodies to the practice in the exam room. Its remit covers statutory assessments, national examinations, and the consistency of access arrangements across the UK.
REGULARS
Review – The surprise jelly party 86
A story about a young boy who lives in Jellytown and is going to have a birthday party and the book includs QR codes at the beginning of the book and link to the story presented in Sign Supported English and British Sign Language.
Review – Babies’ and toddlers’ rights in practice 87
This fresh perspective, linked directly to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, explores, through a range of topics, the four domains Protection, Provision, Development, and Participation.
Let’s go for a sound walk 88
The story follows two children, one with a visible cochlear implant, and introduces a range of indoor and outdoor environmental sounds through both text and imagery.
BATOD membership 89
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