Lots of schools take part in sign2sing but not every school has a special sign club. Children from St John’s Primary Academy in Essington get together throughout the year to learn signed songs lead by Support Assistant Jyoti Budd. And now the children have made a special film showing them performing the sign2sing song ‘Reach Out Your Hand’, with a special appearance from Deaf pop star Fletch.
Signing is part of life at the school
The school has a number of deaf pupils including Dylan and Jordan, featured in the video, who are not only great friends but fantastic role models.
“Signing is part of life at the school’ says Deputy Head Teacher, Charlene Marston “If we have a Harvest Festival or special assembly the children always learn a signed song.”
The whole school learned the 2016 song Reach Out Your Hand and now Sign Club re busy learning the 2017 song Together. The plan is for the club to sign the verses and teach the chorus to the rest of the school. One of the school’s deaf pupils is in his final year at the school so performing the song will be a fantastic opportunity to give him a really special send off.
“We love taking part in sign2sing’ says Charlene “It promotes deaf awareness and there’s something very poignant about the whole school learning to sign when we have deaf children at the school.”