Deaf child in year 7 can't hear school bell

[elliejjtiny]

He gets to school on time 99% of the time but around 5-7 times a month he will be logged as late because he says he can't hear the bell. His brother who isn't deaf says he can hear the bell everywhere including on the playground etc so he isn't in a quiet area or anything like that. I've been at school at the beginning of the day and change of lessons and it's not like the bell goes and everyone dashes off to their tutor rooms. There will be people being late, going to the office and all sorts, so I can't tell him to move when everyone else does. The tutor doesn't give him detention when he is late but he still gets a red wedge in his wheel on classcharts. Also I would like him to not be late if possible. Any tips?

A watch, plus keeping an eye out for others going in to school when the bell goes (surely there must be a fair few students going inside at that time?).
For what it’s worth my son’s school doesn’t have bells - they go by time.

My child has a vibration device for the timings of the school day. But the clue is when others start moving inwards. No excuses for being late for mine - 7 minutes is a lot.

I don't understand the logistics. 🤷🏻‍♀️

If the OP's son is in the playground, and the bell goes, surely he sees the other pupils then go into class?

Or when the lesson ends, the other pupils leave the room?

Contact the senco. They need to make reasonable adjustments for him - in this case, a plan to support him with getting to where he needs to be on time. There's no way he should be punished for this. They also need to establish whether he can hear the fire alarm when that goes off and make a personal emergency evacuation plan for him.

Assuming he has hearing aids or cochlear implants, these work best within about 2m and prioritise speech sounds roughly from the front (so people are less distracted by background noise) so it’s understandable that he might not always hear the bell. They absolutely should not be marking him late without proper discussion with him, you and the TOD to make a plan and agree what is fair.
Fire alarm is likely to be a different system but worth checking this , local fire service usually willing to do a safety check and where we are help with equipment.

Depending on his level of aided hearing lights by bell might be appropriate but you might also want to think what he can learn to do to be safe in other situations, eg being aware of other people moving as a habit. Not sure how much it’s fair at his age to be his responsibility and how much relying on school putting up more tech as a reasonable adjustment. You don’t want to ‘blame the victim’ but on the other hand he needs to learn to gradually be more independent and safe in a mostly hearing world.

If he has a phone there are likely to be accessibility settings where you can programme the phone to vibrate to a custom sound (ie set it up to vibrate to school bell) there are also apps such as Deaf Wake which might help in this or other situations. Hope you get it sorted!

He should be able to request through his teacher of the deaf for a pager system to be installed to the school and the fire bell that connects to a watch or a pager he can wear on his belt. It will vibrate.

This is just one example of the kind of thing DS will need to find work arounds for throughout his life , and you can help him by contacting charities eg NDCS and joining support groups to find out what other kids do. Make it an exciting project and don’t assume the school will always come up with a solution.

Are you in the UK? Does your child have an EHCP? If they don't, and the school isn't pro-active in supporting your child, it would be helpful to apply for one. With or without an EHCP, your school can contact your local authority's Teacher for the Deaf, who can offer various levels of support (I don't know if this is different in each area, but there is no cost to parents or the school for this support in my area). They usually offer to meet the child wherever they are comfortable (at home or at school) or, if your child is uncomfortable with that, they can just visit the school and quietly observe a lesson and speak to teachers, before making suggestions which may help.

Is your child finding it hard to make friends at school? It seems unusual that he wouldn't go to class at the same time his friends did. Some form of vibrating alarm may help, as others have suggested. Can the school arrange a buddy for him, or a TA to take him to class? I would also want to know what their fire safety/emergency plans are to ensure your child can evacuate quickly and safely in an emergency.

For him to be recorded as late, because he didn't hear the alarm is disability discrimination. That's the line you should be taking with the school.

Ask them what adjustments they will be making to help your son know the bell is ringing.

I'm trying to understand this situation. Where is he and who is he with for the 7 minutes after everyone else has gone in for the bell? Surely, if he's frequently left behind not knowing what's going on there's an argument that he needs more 1:1 support? Maybe you could ask school to set-up a buddy or have a classroom assistant make sure he's responding to the bell?

If it's just late for the first lesson of the day, is there some sort of vibrating watch alarm available. I assume the lesson starts at 8.40 or whatever every day?

I would ask what the fire plan is though. As that sounds like a major potential issue.

Surely you would raise this with school.

I am deaf so I do sympathise

A vibrating watch or similar might help but they also need to think about emergency alarms etc

When my son was injured and moving slowly they let him out of class first to move between lessons and they also had a note on the system so he didn't get a late mark if he was a couple of minutes late

It's not inclusive, but too many PP are taking issue with the fact he's MARKED late.

This is only happening because he IS late and surely that's the problem. He's missing what everyone else is attending.

Now you know, because it's being recorded and reported accurately, ask for support in getting him in on time. A reminder or prompt from anyone else should be enough - staff on duty, perfects, friends. And they will all start to move, so he needs to pay attention. That's how they're all getting in there before him.

@Hellisemptyallthdevilsarehere

It's not inclusive, but too many PP are taking issue with the fact he's MARKED late.

This is only happening because he IS late and surely that's the problem. He's missing what everyone else is attending.

But he should not be marked late when the lateness is due to him being disabled. Would you say the same for a wheelchair user who took longer to get to class? Of course not. A solution needs to be worked out, but there should not be any late marks meantime.

if he’s only late 5 times a month, and he will be registered twice a day for attendance purposes (and 5 times a day for lesson purposes) then you’re talking 40 sessions a month ish and he’s late 5 times.

presumably that’s not a “I can’t hear the bell” issue or he wouldn’t be on time for the 35/40 times he gets himself there.

that sounds more like a “I can’t be arsed to get to lesson on time and I’m saying it’s because I can’t hear the bell” issue.

making allowances for disability? Absolutely. Allowing him to use the disability as an excuse for something that he could deal with? No.

Where is he in the playground? I'm in my 7th school over a 30 year career and I would think it odd that he isn't being noticed in the playground by staff on duty.

Definitely get him a watch as it's his responsibility to get to class on time, but also have a chat about where he is going at break/ before school as sounds like he is squirrelling himself away from everybody else and clearly on his own (otherwise his friends would hear the bell).
My guy reaction is to wonder about him being bullied?
Bullied children often find a 'safe space' to hide away at break/ lunch times such as locking themselves in a toilet cubicle for the whole of break. I would do some digging and find out what's going on.

It's a legal record of reality though.
I agree that the issue isn't the late mark.

It's not a reasonable adjustment to decide a deaf child can just miss education and falsify the legal record to pretend they were there. A reasonable adjustment is to help the child get there on time.

If a wheelchair user was late as they took longer to get to class I'd expect thought to be given to transitions to minimise the learning they miss, eg timetabling classes closer together in the building. If there was really no possible way to get to lessons in time, it would still need to be recorded that they were missing all this learning.

Of course he should be marked late. He'll be marked absent first, when he's physically not there. That's a legal requirement for safeguarding.

I definitely would. I had to mark a wheelchair user absent and late on a number of last year. Her extra time in exams meant she wasn't with me in class always when timetabled to be. Her appointments and meetings meant she missed sessions. Accurate registers were how we knew and found her when she was stuck in the lift once, instead of her maths lesson. And how the appointed assistant in our fire zone appeared to escort her to the meeting point when needed, as per her personal evacuation plan.

Vibrating watch programmed 1 minute before each playground bell time so he can be alerted to be watching the other dc. If he's profoundly deaf (ie hearing aids do not allow him to hear the bell) he'll need other adaptations for safety too, does he have bsl interpreter for instance? Could they stand there at 1 minute to go so he goes to them when the watch vibrates?

@Hellisemptyallthdevilsarehere

Of course he should be marked late. He'll be marked absent first, when he's physically not there. That's a legal requirement for safeguarding.

Absent then change to present. Discriminating against disabled people is not ok.

And yes marking late is important to identify the problem and come up with solutions if it is due to disability or highlight another issue eg just being late because couldn't be bothered to be on time - just because he has a disability doesn't mean he's above messing around at the end of break! Whatever the reason the register means op knows that there's an issue and can work towards fixing it.

Thank you everyone. He has hearing aids, a teacher of the deaf and an ehcp. We got him a watch for Christmas so hopefully that will help. It's only ever tutor time first thing in the morning he has been late for (apart from one time when he didn't get himself changed from pe on time) so I think he must not be with friends then but is for break and lunch. I have noticed when I go to drop my youngest off at primary school on the other side of town there are quite a few from the secondary school strolling along the road, not rushing at all so I think there will be a lot of children coming in late, not just my ds on his own when everyone else is in tutor time.

Ds seems to really struggle with background noise so he will hear the bell if everyone around him is fairly quiet but if it's really loud he won't be able to hear it. Also there are a few girls in his tutor group who tend to "mother" him a bit so they will tell him the bell has gone if they are around. Year 7's aren't allowed their phones at school apart from with permission for medical reasons so I will ask the senco if he can have his with him.

Thank you all again. Starting secondary school has been a steep learning curve for us all as there are so many hurdles that just weren't there during primary school.

No, marking someone late isn't a criticism or a judgement or a punishment. It's an accurate record to reflect the facts.

If teachers hasn't been marking this child late, as they are responsible for doing, OP wouldn't know there was a problem which needed to dealt with. He has the rest of year seven and four more years at this school and hopefully now people are aware, something supportive will be put in place.

Whether due to disability or truancy, a teacher is not required to say a child was with them for any given period of time when they were in actual fact not.

It would be extremely problematic in many ways - if the record when checked says a child was in a classroom, what if he was really being bullied in the toilets (if the perpetrator was also marked present when they finally arrived to their lesson because of their own additional needs, it would never have happend...); what if another is failing science and the teacher wants to raise concerns about his attendance, but it looks like he's always there, even if he's only arriving for the last five minutes three times a week; what if one is put on after school intervention until 4:30pm, she doesn't show up, her parents see her present on the register on the app that informs them, and she's unaccounted for off site, alone in the dark, for an hour?

The school must make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act. Especially if he's being punished for some thing directly disability related.

EG Installing a light that goes on when the bell does.

A vibrating watch is a good idea, and hopefully will help. I'm going to echo another comment - would he be able to hear the fire bell? That's a safety aspect that needs checking. Perhaps talk to the school to see if they can put some practical help in - for example a friend stays with him in the morning, so when the bell goes, that friend can make him aware.