Speakers House reception

In November 2010 BSA presented its education website stammeringineducation.net at a lunchtime reception and recital at Speakers House, House of Commons.

BSA Education Officer Cherry Hughes (front left) with Ed Balls MP (rear centre) and some of those involved in the filming of the clips on stammeringineducation.net: from left to right, Paul, head teacher Susan Casey (front centre), Matthew Sumpter, and teacher Stephanie Barton.
From left to right, The Speaker John Bercow MP, Lord Knight, and BSA patron Ed Balls MP.	Ruth Knight sang music by Handel, Mozart, Schubert and others.
BSA members and supporters at the Speakers House reception.

The event was by kind permission of the speaker John Bercow MP. Young soprano Ruth Knight, daughter of the former Schools Minister Lord Knight, sang music by Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Britten, Fauré and Rodrigo. As well as Lord Knight and John Bercow, BS

A patron Ed Balls MP spoke to the gathering of BSA members and supporters.

BSA's education officer Cherry Hughes presented our work with young people who stammer, and in particular our website for school staff: www.stammeringineducation.net. This is our online resource which shows best practice for teachers and school staff when working with pupils who stammer, plus tips and techniques for English oral work. It includes video and audio clips of children who stammer, teachers and therapists, and classroom situations.

Here is some of the feedback we have received from school SENCOs (Special Educational Needs co-ordinators) on the stammeringineducation website:

Design and presentation:

'Very very well designed overall, very easy to use, clear user friendly language - the setting was pleasing to the eye and would be easily used by a range of audiences.'

'Informative and extremely useful to all staff in the school, to whom I am emailing the information. Would raise awareness and support staff in providing help to those who need it.'

Video clips of classroom situations:

'They show the significance of a good relationship between pupil and teacher, the need to help pupils confront the stammer and to plan appropriate activities. They provide a good insight into stammering and how to go about helping such pupils.'

'Excellent insight into stuttering and the types of fluency facilitation techniques that could be used. Also, I like the comments from real teachers.'

Video/audio clips of pupils who stammer speaking directly:

'Very powerful to hear pupils' voice.'

'Found strategies pupils mentioned very useful and will feed back to SEN Team.'

Video/audio clips of speech and language therapists:

'Clear up-to-date information, very useful for teachers but also for SLTs who do not specialise in the area.'

General views:

'It's easily accessible and can be referred to at any time. It brings training to the teachers and other staff and this is very convenient.'

'We all use the web so anyone can be advised to use this if they need the training. It is quick, easy and you can do what suits you in the time you have.'

From the Spring 2011 edition of Speaking Out, page 13.

Our Education Officer