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Royal School for the Deaf Derby

Royal School for the Deaf Derby (RSDD) is a non-maintained residential special school for children and young people who are deaf. We have a child centred approach with personalised programmes to meet individual needs. Weekly (Mon-Thu night) placements are available to young people from a nationwide catchment area. All children and young people have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) and there are approximately 110 young people on roll aged between 3 and 19.

The latest residential OFSTED report (March 2024) graded the residential provision as Outstanding in all areas. The latest school OFSTED report (March 2019) graded the education provision as Good in all areas.

We are a community of deaf and hearing staff who strive to offer the best possible education and care for deaf children and young people. We are the largest employer in the East and West Midlands of Deaf BSL users. The Deaf members of staff provide good role models for children and young people. Deaf members of staff are represented across all teams in school including teaching staff, education assistants, residential staff, and school support staff. We are a signing and speaking community where the languages and cultures of both deaf and hearing people are valued. A strong sense of identity is promoted and young people are prepared for adult life through independence and life skills training. We pride ourselves on being a warm and inclusive environment providing both day and week-long residential places for deaf children and young people. Language is developed using the child or young person's preferred method of communication.

Children and young people are listened to, can express their views and are understood. The broad range of subjects offered is delivered using an individualised approach tailored to the language profiles of each child. We proudly deliver BSL and English, and value our bilingual approach to communication.

We have highly specialised staff on site and employed directly by the school. This includes, an Audiologist, a  Speech and Language Therapy team (currently 2.6 FTE) who specialise in working with deaf children and provide expert support. The Health Centre provides a comprehensive support service to children and young people and a Complex Needs SENCO provides additional input where the needs of the child require additional support.

Royal School for the Deaf Derby provides a high quality language environment for deaf children aged 5-19 where the National Curriculum is followed and delivered by qualified teachers. Most of the teaching staff are already fully qualified Teachers of the Deaf (ToD), with 90% of the teaching staff either already qualified, mid-qualification or already scheduled to start the qualification within the next 2 years. Our commitment is to have all teaching staff qualified as teachers of the deaf as soon as practically possible.

Royal School for the Deaf Derby is a unique provider of day and weekly placements for deaf children and young people aged 3–19. We deliver literacy, numeracy and all curriculum areas in both British Sign Language (BSL) and English tailoring our approach to the individual communication profiles of children and young people. We are a signing and speaking community where the languages and cultures of both deaf and hearing people are valued equally. We promote a strong sense of identity and independence and prepare children and young people for further or higher education and/or the world of work. We offer a warm, caring, supportive, safe, secure and non-oppressive environment that appreciates the characteristics of a child’s or young person’s race, gender, ability, faith and religion together with their likes and dislikes, dietary needs, cultural, religious, social, emotional, medical and physical needs. We welcome parents, carers and those funding the placements of children and young people to visit our school and experience the breadth of our provision. We offer free assessments (day and/or residential)  for children and young people who are considering a place at Royal School for the Deaf Derby and the first term is considered as an extended assessment.

Paul Burrows

Headteacher