Parental involvement in school

Only one participant advised that her mum (hearing) had been involved in the Parent Council when she was at nursery.  Her mother really enjoyed this and found it to be an invaluable way of understanding how the education system worked.  Another participant advised that his mum who was Deaf, tried to get involved but it became very complex and in the end she did not because the school could not get funding for BSL/English interpreters.

School events and parents evenings

Attending school events and parents meetings at school was not an issue for three participants as their parents were hearing.  It was the participants themselves who needed a BSL/English interpreter to try and understand what was being said about them in terms of their progress at school.

One participant advised that at a previous secondary school, a support worker instead of a BSL/English interpreter was provided for her parents during a parents meeting.  This approach was not effective because the support worker was not fluent in BSL.

When events were being held at school, participants had mixed experiences.  These varied between:

• a Teacher of Deaf waiting at the entrance of the school to take Deaf parents to the appropriate class or area;
• BSL/English interpreters being provided for school shows to allow Deaf parents to have the same access as hearing parents; and
• no BSL/English interpreters being provided at school events or parents meetings.

Homework

One participant commented that he struggled with homework.  This was due to him having to travel a significant distance to and from school each day and therefore it was late before he arrived home.  Despite trying to do homework on the bus, this proved too difficult.

Parental support with homework was challenging for different reasons.  For two participants whose parents are Deaf, support was provided where possible but helping with English homework was difficult.  This was primarily due to them being from another country and English not being their first or even second language.  For another participant whose parents were hearing, getting help with homework was dependent on the topic.  Support with Maths was difficult as the participant did not always understand it in English.  Her parents would try and gesture or use other words to support her understanding.

For another participant, homework caused a lot of tears in primary school but her parents, who were hearing, supported her a lot with this.  After moving to high school, she became a bit more independent with her learning and she started to understand her way of learning.  When she was not sure of anything, she would ask the teachers or Teachers of Deaf children and young people at school to help.  More support with homework was therefore provided from teachers when she was at high school rather than her parents.

One participant advised that as he came from a different country, the culture in respect to homework was very different.  It was expected in his home country that children and young people would work on their own to complete homework and learn independently.  Support was really only sought to clarify understanding.  An example of this was science.  Understanding the table of elements was very difficult and so this participant requested support with it, at the time, from his parents.