College celebrates 10 years of British Sign Language

Safeena Ahmed, 18 (Childcare and deaf student), Ali Thompson (Communication Support Worker), Elaine Butterworth (Deaf Tutor) and Sameena Ahmed (Childcare and deaf student),20

Hopwood Hall College helped celebrate the ten year anniversary of British Sign Language (BSL) being recognised and accepted by the government as an official language, by introducing sign language to staff and students.

The College set up stalls on campus where students could learn basic sign language and take part in fun games and activities in which they could discover the history of BSL while winning prizes.

Elaine Butterworth, a deaf tutor at the College for over ten years, stressed the importance of sign language to the College. Elaine said: “At the College we have about 30 deaf students, including 18 British Sign Language users. As a result we’ve ensured we have a large team of approximately 17 staff who know sign language and we are now also training more frontline staff in sign language too.”

There are nine million deaf people in the UK and approximately 250,000 BSL users. Elaine continues: “BSL if often misunderstood by hearing people. We hope through our activities at the College that we can help show everyone what a richly expressive language it is. It has grammar, a creative and adaptable vocabulary and a long cultural and artistic heritage.”

Weronika Wejnar, one of the College’s deaf students commented: “When I first came here I was amazed at the support that was available at the College. There are educational communicators, deaf tutors, note-takers and a teacher of the deaf available for deaf students. The level of signing from the staff is really high which helps me greatly as I am also from Poland and learning English.

"My children and husband are also deaf and we would be more than happy to send our children to the College.”