An important part of our school is our Hearing Support Centre (HSC). This is an enhanced provision in the Torbay area as St. Margaret’s Academy is the designated primary school for pupils with hearing impairment, aged 4 – 11. There has been a hearing resource base here for over 50 years.  We cater for children with moderate to profound hearing loss.

Children who attend the HSC are supported by an experienced specialist team comprising a Teacher of the Deaf, two Deaf Inclusion Workers and two Specialist Teaching Assistants.  The team has qualifications in Educational Audiology, Deaf Education, BSL (Levels 2, 3 and 6) and Cued Speech. 

The children are fully included in all aspects of school life in a whole school approach. All mainstream staff have experience of working with children who have hearing impairment and they receive regular deaf awareness training. The children benefit from being with other hearing impaired children whilst working and playing alongside their hearing peers. 

We assess each child’s needs according to hearing loss and communication mode and we devise individual programmes to develop receptive and expressive language. We provide the communication method appropriate to each child, whether that is spoken language or BSL. The support we provide enables hearing impaired children to access the curriculum and to become independent learners. As experienced and qualified practitioners we are able to support the children academically, socially and emotionally. 

Children with audiological equipment are provided with assistive listening devices (ALD). Each classroom is fitted with a soundfield system, which links to the ALD to give optimum opportunities for listening in the classroom.  Cued Speech is used to enhance access to English and to support development of Literacy.  BSL training is offered to staff and is taught to hearing peers alongside hearing impaired children.

We work closely with outside agencies e.g. speech and language therapist, audiological technician, cochlear implant teams and any other relevant professionals.
The children also attend the Hearing Support Centre for one-to-one and small group sessions with specialist staff.

As a centre attached to a mainstream school our aim is to give our children the best opportunity and support to enable them to be confident learners, achieving success alongside their friends.

Our most recent inspection highlighted that “Pupils with hearing impairment make good progress. They are happy and settled in school.” (Ofsted, September 2017)

Visits to the Hearing Support Centre at St. Margaret’s Academy are encouraged and welcomed.

Admissions Criteria

All pupils must have an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) which identifies that they have a moderate to profound hearing loss. Admissions are managed by the Torbay Local Authority SEND Team.