Miss-Delectable
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Deaf Talkabout: Debate over school education goes on - Opinion - News - Belfast Telegraph
Writing in the Sunday Times, former Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead maintains grammar schools have contributed more to social mobility than any other institution in this country.
"In the 1940s and 1950s", he says, "there was a grammar school in every town and more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds won places at top universities than before or since".
I have a vested interest in this as I lost my hearing shortly after sitting the entrance exam for Methodist College.
In those days deafness was regarded as an insoluble barrier to any sort of higher education.
Nothing more was heard from the college and after a few years at a private school for deaf children I started work at the age of 14.
It was many years before I caught up.
Things were a bit different for my wife as she was already deaf when she sat the 11-plus followed by the entrance exam for Bloomfield and then Glenola, in Bangor. Evelyn tells me her parents had to fight long and hard with the education authorities to gain acceptance, and from then until graduation she coped alone by lip-reading and additional studies - with no extra help or interpretation of any sort in the classroom.
Westminster has become very equivocal on the success or otherwise of grammar schools and it will be interesting to see how our new Assembly deals with the issue. David Cameron has annoyed many of his own party by expressing a preference for city academies even though research shows that children at grammars make better progress than their peers at comprehensive schools and here in Northern Ireland pupils of all abilities routinely outperform pupils in England at GCSE and A-Level.
The province has no grammar school specifically geared to deaf pupils and for the past 40 years or so our bright young deaf have been educated at the Mary Hare School in Berkshire, an excellent school in beautiful surroundings where oralism is paramount in the classrooms even though sign language is tolerated in after-school hours. Up to 20 Northern Ireland pupils attended every year and many graduated to university and worthwhile jobs. The young folk love the school and the new friends they make ? but it costs more than £1m a year with travel and other expenses. Will the new Assembly continue to support the set-up?
Changes are in the air and it's not just in relation to grammar schools. Parents naturally prefer their children to attend local schools during the formative years and it's never easy to send an 11-year-old child across the water.
It is also felt that those who have the temperament and ability to cope with the teaching and social life at local grammar schools flourish in the competitive environment. The new digital hearing aids are wonderful and, where the situation demands it, special coaching or interpreter support can be made available.
But, as Mr Woodhead continues to argue, children are markedly different in their abilities and aspirations, and instead of focusing on grammar schools, a vocational education in a vocational school might easily come to be seen as equally desirable as an academic education in a grammar school. Mary Hare or a place in a local grammar may be a dream too far for many of our young deaf, but that need not mean they can't find happiness in life and a worthwhile job.
The country is crying out for skilled workers of all types and intelligence of a different type is needed to master plumbing and electricity and all kinds of building work. Jobs like these are very well paid but require a dedicated apprenticeship as arduous as university studies.
Writing in the Sunday Times, former Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead maintains grammar schools have contributed more to social mobility than any other institution in this country.
"In the 1940s and 1950s", he says, "there was a grammar school in every town and more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds won places at top universities than before or since".
I have a vested interest in this as I lost my hearing shortly after sitting the entrance exam for Methodist College.
In those days deafness was regarded as an insoluble barrier to any sort of higher education.
Nothing more was heard from the college and after a few years at a private school for deaf children I started work at the age of 14.
It was many years before I caught up.
Things were a bit different for my wife as she was already deaf when she sat the 11-plus followed by the entrance exam for Bloomfield and then Glenola, in Bangor. Evelyn tells me her parents had to fight long and hard with the education authorities to gain acceptance, and from then until graduation she coped alone by lip-reading and additional studies - with no extra help or interpretation of any sort in the classroom.
Westminster has become very equivocal on the success or otherwise of grammar schools and it will be interesting to see how our new Assembly deals with the issue. David Cameron has annoyed many of his own party by expressing a preference for city academies even though research shows that children at grammars make better progress than their peers at comprehensive schools and here in Northern Ireland pupils of all abilities routinely outperform pupils in England at GCSE and A-Level.
The province has no grammar school specifically geared to deaf pupils and for the past 40 years or so our bright young deaf have been educated at the Mary Hare School in Berkshire, an excellent school in beautiful surroundings where oralism is paramount in the classrooms even though sign language is tolerated in after-school hours. Up to 20 Northern Ireland pupils attended every year and many graduated to university and worthwhile jobs. The young folk love the school and the new friends they make ? but it costs more than £1m a year with travel and other expenses. Will the new Assembly continue to support the set-up?
Changes are in the air and it's not just in relation to grammar schools. Parents naturally prefer their children to attend local schools during the formative years and it's never easy to send an 11-year-old child across the water.
It is also felt that those who have the temperament and ability to cope with the teaching and social life at local grammar schools flourish in the competitive environment. The new digital hearing aids are wonderful and, where the situation demands it, special coaching or interpreter support can be made available.
But, as Mr Woodhead continues to argue, children are markedly different in their abilities and aspirations, and instead of focusing on grammar schools, a vocational education in a vocational school might easily come to be seen as equally desirable as an academic education in a grammar school. Mary Hare or a place in a local grammar may be a dream too far for many of our young deaf, but that need not mean they can't find happiness in life and a worthwhile job.
The country is crying out for skilled workers of all types and intelligence of a different type is needed to master plumbing and electricity and all kinds of building work. Jobs like these are very well paid but require a dedicated apprenticeship as arduous as university studies.