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Learning on Their Own Frequency HEARING LESSONS The National School for Deaf Children Moved to a New Site to Avoid a Cash Crisis, Writes Julia Horton - Education - redOrbit
EVERY classroom at Scotland's National School for Deaf Children has its own frequency for lesson broadcasts.
A radio receiver and amplifier box, microphone and wall-mounted speaker are used to create a specialised PA system which increases the volume of the teacher's voice by about 15 decibels.
Eventually, each classroom will also have a gadget by the door which automatically converts pupils' radio aids as they pass to the correct frequency for their new location.
The importance of making sound audible in a school for pupils suffering from deafness might seem strange.
But, as Donaldson's school principal Janice MacNeill explains, very few of the 70 pupils here have no hearing at all. The school is not just for those who are completely deaf, but also for children with impaired hearing, speech and language.
All of them need as much help as possible to tune into the sounds that they can detect.
With its high ceilings, their historic base at Donaldson's College in Edinburgh was more of a hindrance to the youngsters, who range in age from two-and-a-half to 19.
Mrs MacNeill recalled: "There were a lot of echoes and reverberations which meant that children heard echoes which made it harder to hear [the original sound]. The echoes interfered with children's hearing aids."
Such problems are among the reasons why the school has relocated to its new purpose-built GBP22m site at Linlithgow, which was officially opened yesterday.
Inside, specially designed acoustic tiles riddled with holes have been installed to absorb sound so that it does not bounce back in echo form.
The lighting, heating and ventilation systems are all noiseless, removing background sounds which also caused problems at the old site.
These design measures do not simply make it easier for youngsters to hear during classes, they allow the school's experts to monitor their development and check whether they need new hearing aids to help them achieve their full potential.
Standing in the school's new audio testing centre, Joe O'Donnell, educational audiologist, explains the benefits over the school's former base in more detail.
He said: "We had an audio lab in the old school, but it was only sound-treated, not soundproofed so there were still external sounds coming in, like the sound of the heating system, and we had to pick our times to do tests [accordingly].
"It's very important when monitoring speech development that you take out all the other variables."
In the testing centre, an audiometer is used to play tones at different frequencies to children through special headphones. Depending on their age, they might put a toy in a basket or press a button to indicate that they have heard a sound.
Mr O'Donnell added: "That's the basis of hearing aid fitting. If that [their response] changes, the hearing aid fitting changes."
New technology has also revolutionised teaching at the school, where every classroom also has a "Smartboard".
Essentially a giant interactive laptop, it was demonstrated to First Minister Alex Salmond as he toured the school before declaring it officially open with a bang of the historic Donaldson drum.
Primary pupils were using the technology to learn about shapes, taking turns to walk up to the board and write answers to questions listed on it relating to triangles and squares, such as: "How many sides?"
The device has also proved to be useful for helping children to communicate by allowing them to use it to search the internet for information and pictures to help them describe something they are finding it difficult to make clear to the rest of the class.
Outside in a colourful play park, primary pupil Thomas Sutherland is clearly enjoying his new surroundings. The 11-year-old from Penicuik was born profoundly deaf but now has some hearing thanks to a Cochlear implant enabling him to communicate through both sign language and speech. He said: "I like the swimming pool and I really like the new computers, I can use them for games, language and writing stories."
For children with more profound problems, a sensory room has been built to give them an opportunity to learn basic communication by responding to changing lights and colours.
The dark carpet features bright spots of light like stars in the night sky, which alter randomly.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the school is strong on visual elements. Bright patches of green on the floor are part of a colour-coding system indicating the primary part of the school, while blue represents the nursery and orange secondary.
Another key benefit of moving to Linlithgow is that the pupils can interact more with other youngsters in mainstream schools.
Mrs MacNeill added: "We were in a sort of business centre in Edinburgh. Here we are part of the community. We can mix with hearing schools, which we were not doing before."
The main drive behind the school's relocation by the charitable Donaldson Trust was a cash crisis which threatened to jeopardise its future.
In 2003, trustees announced that they were selling the lucrative site to city property developer Cala Group. Money from the sale was used to fund the new multi-million pound school. The Scottish Government has since awarded a GBP1.9m annual grant to help with running costs. But as the Rev John Chalmers, chairman of the school's board of governors, said to Mr Salmond at yesterday's celebratory concert: "In the words of Oliver Twist, we could always do with more."
The First Minister, who worked on the site of the new school during his own youth when it was an electronics factory, said he was delighted to support the institution.
Meanwhile, if there was any doubt about the need for education for deaf children, the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) Scotland claimed yesterday that there were twice as many deaf children in the country's schools than official figures suggested.
NDCS Scotland launched a campaign calling on the Scottish Government to collect more accurate data on the number of deaf children in Scotland to ensure that they receive the help they are entitled to. Jan Savage, NDCS Scotland policy and campaigns officer, who welcomed the new Donaldson School, said: "At this point in time no-one knows how many deaf children there are in Scotland. Once they get to school it is only children who are reported as deaf who get a statutory plan [to ensure that they receive access to services and support]."
From its inception until the start of the Second World War, Donaldson's operated what was a unique system, integrating hearing and non-hearing pupils, which was credited with helping to bridge the divide between hearing and deaf communities.
With its new location in the heart of a small Scottish town and a wealth of technology to try to give children the best education possible to prepare them for the hearing world, the new Donaldson School hopes to continue that tradition.
EVERY classroom at Scotland's National School for Deaf Children has its own frequency for lesson broadcasts.
A radio receiver and amplifier box, microphone and wall-mounted speaker are used to create a specialised PA system which increases the volume of the teacher's voice by about 15 decibels.
Eventually, each classroom will also have a gadget by the door which automatically converts pupils' radio aids as they pass to the correct frequency for their new location.
The importance of making sound audible in a school for pupils suffering from deafness might seem strange.
But, as Donaldson's school principal Janice MacNeill explains, very few of the 70 pupils here have no hearing at all. The school is not just for those who are completely deaf, but also for children with impaired hearing, speech and language.
All of them need as much help as possible to tune into the sounds that they can detect.
With its high ceilings, their historic base at Donaldson's College in Edinburgh was more of a hindrance to the youngsters, who range in age from two-and-a-half to 19.
Mrs MacNeill recalled: "There were a lot of echoes and reverberations which meant that children heard echoes which made it harder to hear [the original sound]. The echoes interfered with children's hearing aids."
Such problems are among the reasons why the school has relocated to its new purpose-built GBP22m site at Linlithgow, which was officially opened yesterday.
Inside, specially designed acoustic tiles riddled with holes have been installed to absorb sound so that it does not bounce back in echo form.
The lighting, heating and ventilation systems are all noiseless, removing background sounds which also caused problems at the old site.
These design measures do not simply make it easier for youngsters to hear during classes, they allow the school's experts to monitor their development and check whether they need new hearing aids to help them achieve their full potential.
Standing in the school's new audio testing centre, Joe O'Donnell, educational audiologist, explains the benefits over the school's former base in more detail.
He said: "We had an audio lab in the old school, but it was only sound-treated, not soundproofed so there were still external sounds coming in, like the sound of the heating system, and we had to pick our times to do tests [accordingly].
"It's very important when monitoring speech development that you take out all the other variables."
In the testing centre, an audiometer is used to play tones at different frequencies to children through special headphones. Depending on their age, they might put a toy in a basket or press a button to indicate that they have heard a sound.
Mr O'Donnell added: "That's the basis of hearing aid fitting. If that [their response] changes, the hearing aid fitting changes."
New technology has also revolutionised teaching at the school, where every classroom also has a "Smartboard".
Essentially a giant interactive laptop, it was demonstrated to First Minister Alex Salmond as he toured the school before declaring it officially open with a bang of the historic Donaldson drum.
Primary pupils were using the technology to learn about shapes, taking turns to walk up to the board and write answers to questions listed on it relating to triangles and squares, such as: "How many sides?"
The device has also proved to be useful for helping children to communicate by allowing them to use it to search the internet for information and pictures to help them describe something they are finding it difficult to make clear to the rest of the class.
Outside in a colourful play park, primary pupil Thomas Sutherland is clearly enjoying his new surroundings. The 11-year-old from Penicuik was born profoundly deaf but now has some hearing thanks to a Cochlear implant enabling him to communicate through both sign language and speech. He said: "I like the swimming pool and I really like the new computers, I can use them for games, language and writing stories."
For children with more profound problems, a sensory room has been built to give them an opportunity to learn basic communication by responding to changing lights and colours.
The dark carpet features bright spots of light like stars in the night sky, which alter randomly.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the school is strong on visual elements. Bright patches of green on the floor are part of a colour-coding system indicating the primary part of the school, while blue represents the nursery and orange secondary.
Another key benefit of moving to Linlithgow is that the pupils can interact more with other youngsters in mainstream schools.
Mrs MacNeill added: "We were in a sort of business centre in Edinburgh. Here we are part of the community. We can mix with hearing schools, which we were not doing before."
The main drive behind the school's relocation by the charitable Donaldson Trust was a cash crisis which threatened to jeopardise its future.
In 2003, trustees announced that they were selling the lucrative site to city property developer Cala Group. Money from the sale was used to fund the new multi-million pound school. The Scottish Government has since awarded a GBP1.9m annual grant to help with running costs. But as the Rev John Chalmers, chairman of the school's board of governors, said to Mr Salmond at yesterday's celebratory concert: "In the words of Oliver Twist, we could always do with more."
The First Minister, who worked on the site of the new school during his own youth when it was an electronics factory, said he was delighted to support the institution.
Meanwhile, if there was any doubt about the need for education for deaf children, the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) Scotland claimed yesterday that there were twice as many deaf children in the country's schools than official figures suggested.
NDCS Scotland launched a campaign calling on the Scottish Government to collect more accurate data on the number of deaf children in Scotland to ensure that they receive the help they are entitled to. Jan Savage, NDCS Scotland policy and campaigns officer, who welcomed the new Donaldson School, said: "At this point in time no-one knows how many deaf children there are in Scotland. Once they get to school it is only children who are reported as deaf who get a statutory plan [to ensure that they receive access to services and support]."
From its inception until the start of the Second World War, Donaldson's operated what was a unique system, integrating hearing and non-hearing pupils, which was credited with helping to bridge the divide between hearing and deaf communities.
With its new location in the heart of a small Scottish town and a wealth of technology to try to give children the best education possible to prepare them for the hearing world, the new Donaldson School hopes to continue that tradition.