About the ERP

What does ERP mean?  It means an Enhanced Resource Provision. 

What does the ERP do?  In our school it provides a specialist provision for children with all levels of deafness. It is fundamental to making us who we are as an inclusive school.  We learn British Sign Language (BSL) as a school and take part in many deaf community events

 Who can come to our ERP? Pupils with an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) may apply to our provision. We support pupils from year three to year six.  Many of our pupils come from Aldercar Infants and go to Aldercar High School who also have ERP for deaf pupils. We strongly believe that pupils who come to us are part of our whole school community. The ERP provides additional support for pupils to support them in our classes whilst receiving specialist communication support as needed.  

* The term Deaf / deaf is used throughout this statement to mean all children who come under the ERF provision whatever their level of hearing.

Provision

Our Enhanced Resource Provision (ERP) for deaf and hard of hearing children offers a comprehensive package of support for pupils and their parents/carers. 

This includes:

• Implementation of a whole school plan for Deaf Awareness and deaf friendly strategies.
• A structured programme of training and induction for new staff working with deaf children.
• Use of soundfield systems in all classrooms and the hall along with personal FM systems.
• Annual Deaf Awareness sessions for all pupils plus an optional British Sign Language (BSL) after school Club.
• Support from specialist teaching and learning assistants.

• Communication support tailored to their individual needs.
• Regular assessment and tracking of progress in line with school practice as well as for speaking & listening, audiological awareness and BSL.

• Regular liaison between home and school by means of a Learning Log (home-school book) as well as meetings, phone calls etc.
• Close liaison between all professionals working with the child.
• Provision of staff training from other services including Cochlear Implant Team, Service for Visually Impaired and Service for Physically Impaired.
• Ongoing support from audiology, speech and language therapy and other services.
• Annual review of Educational Health Care Plans (EHCP) and learning plans where appropriate.
• A weekly Deaf Club covering the following aspects: Communication; Identity; Communication Technology; Deaf Community & Culture; Deaf History.
• Links with other local ERP's and feeder schools.
• Participation in local and national events to support organisations such as BDA (British Deaf Association), NDCS (National Deaf Children’s Society) and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

BSL Lessons

Our staff run BSL Lessons across the school as part of our language lessons. We discuss the differences between British Sign Language (BSL), Sign Supported English and English. 

All students have the opportunity to learn the BSL alphabet, fingerspelling, greetings and the importance of using gestures, facial expression and body language as well as a developing vocabulary year on year.  Further information about our BSL curriculum can be found here. 

 * The term Deaf / deaf is used throughout this statement to mean all children who come under the ERF provision whatever their level of hearing.