Free BSL lesson offered to primary schools next month

To commemorate Sign Language Week this year, primary schools in the United Kingdom have been offered the chance to participate in a free online lesson in British Sign Language (BSL).

The 30-minute BSL session will be conducted by a qualified Deaf instructor from Signature, the sign language qualifications body, in conjunction with the British Deaf Association (BDA). The lesson will take place on March 15 at 10am and will be available online for use in future classes.

The beginning of something bigger?

Lindsay Foster, Signature’s executive director, expressed her hope that schools will see the advantages of incorporating sign language into their syllabus as a result of the lesson.

“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”.

Rebecca Mansell, BDA’s chief executive, emphasized the significance of British Sign Language as an independent language and expressed her satisfaction with the passage of the BSL Act (2022) after years of activism by the Deaf community.

“This year marks 20 years since the UK Government first acknowledged that British Sign Language is a language in its own right.

“We are also celebrating the recent passage of the BSL Act (2022) which finally recognised British Sign Language in law after many years of campaigning by the Deaf community.

“We look forward to the first cohort of students starting the BSL GCSE, which is currently in development with the Department for Education, and hope that similar curricula will be developed for primary schools in the near future.”

British Sign Language Week

This year’s Sign Language Week theme is “protecting BSL,” and it will run from March 13 to March 19. The British Deaf Association runs the event every year.

With a GCSE in British Sign Language in the works, it’s hoped this is another stepping stone to a greater uptake of the language.

The first group of students will begin the programme shortly, and the BDA hopes that primary schools will soon be able to develop similar curricula.

Primary schools interested in participating in the lesson should register using a form on SurveyMonkey’s website.