This 2 hour course is suitable for anyone who works with students of any age who have a Hearing Impairment or are Deaf, including teachers, support assistants, counsellors and parents.

The course will cover:

• Different types of deafness
• Awareness of the difficulties faced by deaf students in a mainstream classroom
• The importance of liaison between all professionals involved
• Strategies to give deaf students greater access to education

The course tutor is Derek Heppenstall.

Derek Heppenstall

Derek is a Teacher of the Deaf who has worked for many years modifying examination language for Awarding Bodies. He has represented the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf in liaising with the ABs and compiled the BATOD ‘Language of Examinations’ booklet. He has also acted as an external adviser for Ofqual’s research into language modification. He prepares and presents the courses on Language Modification for both CIEA and Communicate-ed.

Courses can be viewed in either of the following ways:

1. Each member of staff has an individual login and accesses the training on their own device. This has the advantage of flexibility, as the course can be accessed at a time/place to suit the individual (in school/college or at home). OR
2. A group of staff accessing the course together at the same time. For this we recommend that you use a digital projector and large screen with speakers to amplify the presentation. This has advantage of group interaction and monitoring of involvement.

Each login will give access to the chosen course for 10 consecutive days and the course (or parts of the course) can be accessed as many times as required within this 10-day period.

Our course tutors can come to your school or college to run the training face to face. Please email for more information (admin at communicate-ed dot org dot uk).

For over two decades we have been running courses across the country, aiming to provide high quality, value for money training for education professionals working in the area of special needs. We know from speaking to many of our delegates, that it is increasingly difficult for busy professionals to take the opportunity to attend courses off-site. In response to this, we also offer a broad range of online training courses, focusing on Examination Access Arrangements, Assessment, and Supporting Students with SEND.

The advantages of online courses are clear:

• They can be accessed at the delegate’s convenience, in the workplace or home
• Delegates don’t need to travel, saving time and transport costs
• Running costs are lower, allowing us to pass savings on to our delegatesWe offer both individual courses and group courses (moved).

We offer both individual courses and group courses.

Our online courses are designed to be administered in one of two ways depending on whether one member of staff or a group are accessing the course. Courses can be viewed at any time, and in any venue where there is a good internet reception.

Group courses can be viewed in either of the following ways:

1. A group of staff accessing the course together at the same time. For this we recommend that you use a digital projector and large screen with speakers to amplify the presentation. This has advantage of group interaction and monitoring of involvement. OR
2. Each member of staff has an individual login and accesses the training on their own device. This has the advantage of flexibility, as the course can be accessed at a time/place to suit the individual (in school/college or at home).

Each login will give access to the chosen course for 10 consecutive days (Language Modification is 20 days and exam helper cousres are for the rest of the academic year) and the course (or parts of the course) can be accessed as many times as required within this period.

If a group of delegates are accessing a course together, all delegates must be from your centre; you may not use the course to train staff from other centres.

N.B. Delegates will need a good internet connection to access our online courses.

If you are already registered for an online course with us, please click here to log into your course.

There is an optional multiple choice assessment to participate in after accessing the training. There are 15 questions randomly chosen from a bank of 30 and you will have 15 minutes to complete the assessment. There is no pass mark, this is simply an activity to help consolidate the information you have learned on the course. If you choose an incorrect answer you will be able to see the correct answer when you have completed the assessment.