The Willow Primary Deaf and Hearing Support Centre

The Willow DHSC is an oral resource base provision for deaf children based within Sellincourt Primary School, and is for pupils attending nursery to Year 6. We ensure that children with hearing loss feel included, supported, and are able to thrive in a language-rich environment whilst accessing the whole school curriculum. We provide specialist teaching, audiological support, and work closely with families and professionals so every child can reach their full potential. Our aim is simple: to help children become confident learners, great communicators, and proud of who they are.

Through targeted interventions, staff training, and community links, we aim to help every child develop strong language and communication skills and build a confident sense of deaf identity. Our goal is to foster an inclusive, whole-school environment where every child feels included and supported, offering a broad and engaging curriculum that uses multi-sensory approaches to meet each child’s individual needs.

What we offer:

• Specialist Support: Qualified Teachers of the Deaf and specialist teaching assistants who understand and support the needs of deaf children. A variety of methods to support pupils: specific withdrawal, in-class support, 1:1 or small group intervention.
• QToDs deliver differentiated and deaf-friendly curriculum to meet the specific language needs of deaf pupils in English sessions to a mixed group of deaf and hearing children who require specialist support.
• QToDs and TAs support differentiation and setting appropriate tasks in core and foundation subjects across curriculum areas in the mainstream classroom
• Individual Assessments: We use vocabulary-centered assessments to understand each child’s needs and plan the right support.
• Teamwork: We work with speech and language therapists, educational audiologists and local hospitals to ensure that each child has the right equipment to access learning.
• Inclusive Learning: We train mainstream teachers so deaf children are fully included in lessons, and can access learning.
• Shared Goals: We set short-term and long-term targets together with parents and staff throughout the year.
• Extra-curricular activities: Mainstream Trips, clubs, after-school activities, and leadership roles are open to every child.

Audiological Support:

• Two acoustically treated rooms- these rooms are for deaf learners to attend specialist interventions where they can access learning in a quiet, focused listening environment.
• Daily checks – everyday, we check audiological equipment to ensure that any faults are quickly identified, reported and resolved.
• Communication with Audiology department- we maintain close communication with St Georges Audiology department so we can quickly troubleshoot any issues with hearing equipment.
• Regular visits from the Educational Audiologist at Wandsworth Sensory Support to maintain and audit equipment, and ensure good practice.
• QToD delivers regular Deaf Awareness training to mainstream staff to ensure staff members are aware of the audiological and language needs of deaf pupils.

Community Links and Local offer

• Wandsworth Sensory Support Service holds events for parents of deaf and visually impaired students to meet and share experiences.
• Regular meetings and parents’ evenings with our specialist teachers.
• Opportunities for deaf children to meet others at Wandsworth events.
• Support for deaf children aged 8–16 to attend a weekly youth club.

Who Can Join Our Resource Provision?

 Children who:

• Nursery to Year 6 age group.
• Have a severe to profound hearing loss, or a moderate to profound hearing loss with additional language and communication needs.
• Have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) with hearing loss as the main need, or are being assessed for one.

The Willow Centre Staff