Report on the DPDC Derby Event!

After an appeal for sponsors, Communication ID, Zebra Uno, Lexicon Signstream, The Thorntons Derbyshire Fund and Derbyshire Community Foundation, Rolls Royce, Communication Plus, Arboretum Café, Clarion, ALSI and BSL interpreter Emily Copping all came to the rescue!  The DPDC event which took place on Saturday October 5th at the deaf-led Arboretum Café in Derby thankfully went ahead as planned!

We started off by updating everyone on DPDC’s progress in the last year and then chaired a workshop which gave parents the opportunity discuss a wide range of topics such as techniques on how to read school books to BSL-using kids i.e should you read in a SSE style, discussed phonics at great length with lots of suggestions for different kinds of visual phonics, whether the interpreter in a mainstream school should teach French via French Sign Language or via BSL, the right for deaf children to have music lessons in all types of schools even in a deaf school, secondary school options – the ongoing unease with all the possible options, SEN Statements and how to crack them and lastly your child making hearing friends in mainstream schools and how to make sure children integrate with your deaf child.  The notes from these discussions will be published on our website.

All the children had a fantastic time building a giant teepee, designing their own headdress and mask in an activity workshop run by Spiral Arts.  At the end of the day, when the all parents arrived to pick up the children they had a big surprise when all the children pounced on the parents after patiently hiding in the giant teepee! A big thanks to Spiral Arts for hosting such a great activity workshop, and thanks to Clarion for providing an interpreter to work with interpreter Emily Copping who gave her services all day for free.

At the end of the day, all the parents and children returned to the main hall at the Arboretum Café to be entertained by magician and entertainer Paul Brown of Magical Mayhem!  After his performance which dazzled all the kids and parents, Paul announced that he was waiving his fee to support our group which was the icing on the cake after such a brilliant day.

We were delighted to be joined by Lexicon Signstream’s Matthew Sykes, who presented DPDC Chairman Nick Beese with a cheque of £200 which went towards the funding of the event.  Matthew then joined us in watching the magic show!

After being amazed by the magician, the children were sent home on a sugar high as each child was presented with a chocolate lollipop from a hamper sent in by one of our sponsors – Thornton’s Chocolate!

A special thanks goes to a DPDC parent Helen Phillips who organised the event and put together such an exciting agenda for the kids and brought DPDC to the Arboretum Café who with their deaf staff and managers were brilliant hosts!  It was great seeing all the kids sign their orders to the café staff.  If you are looking for a deaf-led and BSL friendly venue we recommend you check out the Arboretum Café!

 

Many thanks to Jason Vessey for all the great photos which captured the event!

Event Sponsors