Primary School
When we ask parents why they wanted their child to come to the primary school, most of them say it was watching the transformation in their child when they visited the Academy. Our primary school is a place where deaf children are included, where they can join in, where they are not seen as different but normal. This website will tell you some of the reasons why the Academy is an excellent environment for deaf students, but the best thing is if you visit and see for yourself. To arrange a visit email Education Administration (info@exeterdeafacademy.ac.uk) subject title ‘arranging visit to Exeter Deaf Academy’.
The focus of our primary school is in identifying the barriers to learning and of developing plans to overcome those barriers. In most cases, the development of language is the primary barrier to learning. We focus on the language development abilities of each child and create a programme specifically for that child. This may involve BSL teaching, Cued English or other language programmes. All primary school students will receive direct support from one of our speech and language therapists.
In addition, we run an emotional development programme for all students. Increasingly we have children on split-placements who spend some of the week at their local school and some time at the Academy.
We follow the national curriculum and also, in order to accommodate the wide range of ability within our students, we group students according to ability rather than age for some subjects. Our education principles explain the underlying principles to our education across the Academy.
Our staff include experienced and qualified Teachers of the Deaf as well as Teaching Assistants with high levels of signing skills and qualifications.
Residential pupils stay for up to four nights a week. In order to allow for travelling time, the school week starts at lunchtime on a Monday and finishes at lunchtime on a Friday. To make up the hours lost due to travel time, the school day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is longer.
We share our PE and swimming lessons with a local school in order to broaden the peer group for our students. There are regular trips and visits to enable the students to discover the fantastic activities and places nearby in Exeter and the South West.
Students come predominantly from Exeter or the local area, although some students travel from as far away as Jersey.