Join the largest online British Sign Language Lesson
On the 15th March 2023, the British Deaf Association (BDA) and Signature, are inviting primary schools across the country to take part in the UK’s largest online British Sign Language (BSL) lesson as part of Sign Language Week. The class will be delivered by a Deaf teacher, accredited by Signature. The BSL lesson will be held online on Wednesday 15 March 2023 from 10am – 10:30am. It will also be available to view online after that date to use with future classes.
The online lesson gives schools the opportunity to learn BSL from a qualified Deaf teacher and to see how their students enjoy the experience. British Sign Language is a visual and spatial language, language learning is different! Learning BSL will enhance vocabulary, spelling and understanding of language and build inclusivity into the classroom, while improving learning for all. Primary schools who already deliver BSL have seen a rapid growth in their children’s confidence to use BSL to communicate not only within school, but also within the community.
Sign Language Week is run on an annual basis by the BDA. The aim of the campaign is to encourage people of all ages across the UK to take up the challenge of learning BSL for themselves and finding out more about the language and culture of the Deaf, Deafblind and hard of hearing British people for whom BSL is their first or preferred language. This year marks 20 years since the UK Government first acknowledged that British Sign Language is a language in its own right and that on 28 April 2022, BSL was recognised in law with the BSL Act 2022 as an indigenous language of Great Britain.
Lindsay Foster, Executive Director at Signature said: “we are really excited to be delivering this lesson as part of Sign Language Week, along with British Deaf Association. BSL is a wonderful language and children love to learn it, we hope that by delivering this lesson it can show schools the benefits of offering sign language as part of their curriculum. Sign Language Week is a lovely celebration of the language, culture, and diversity of the deaf community. As an organisation we enjoy being a part of it and it’s really important to promote the beautiful, unique, visual language, this lesson gives us a great way to do that”.
