Moss Bury is home to one of only two specialist Hearing Impairment Units in Hertfordshire. We are an oral based unit working with primary aged children from Reception to Year 6. We currently have 5 children with hearing impairments in our unit. We have the full time equivalent Teacher of the Deaf and 3 support staff, which include a specialist Teaching Assistant, who provide an integrated approach to working with children who have hearing impairments.
HIU Staff
Mrs Callie Whittaker - Teacher of the Deaf
Mrs Geraldine Wright - Specialist Teaching Assistant
Mrs Gillian May - Teaching Assistant
Ms Julie Brolia - Teaching Assistant
The children all have Educational, Health and Care Plans, have been assessed by the Hearing Impairment Advisory Service and their suitability for a place at Moss Bury HIU is decided by a multi-disciplinary panel.
The children have been assessed as having the potential to develop speech and language without using the signing system, and are full members of their mainstream classes. They wear post aural hearing aids or have cochlea implants and use radio aids to help their integration. They are supported by staff from the HIU in a variety of ways including one to one sessions, small group work or in their class as needed. This may be in one of the unit classrooms with other hearing impaired children or with hearing children.
The Teachers of the Deaf works closely with parents and class teachers, to ensure children have full access to learning opportunities and the National Curriculum.
The hearing impaired children spend some time as a group in the unit to develop their understanding of deaf issues.
A Speech and Language Therapist visits the HIU weekly. She assesses the children's language needs and works with the Unit staff and the children's parents to set individual programmes of work. The children have follow up speech and language sessions from the Unit staff throughout the week.
We are very lucky to have a room that is acoustically treated to ensure the children have the best listening environment. This is particularly important when having their daily speech and language sessions.
The children also benefit from having personal radio aids to enhance their hearing and so have better access to the curriculum.