About Me - Leigh Bellem

Qualifications : Bsl level 1- 2009 Signature Bsl L2 - 2010 Signature NVQ L3 in Bsl - 2012 Ncfe L3 award in education and training. EXPERIENCE - I worked at the John Townsend Trust formly know as the Royal school for Deaf Children in Margate (RSDCM) from 2009-2015 when it went I to administration and closed down. I started my bsl journey after working in a shop and being unable to communicate with my deaf customers. I started my training at the RSDCM and then got a job there. I worked as a lunchtime supervisor with children and young adults with various degrees of Hearing loss and additional disabilities. I continued my training achieving my NVQ L3 in 2012 I wanted to start to learn how to teach the language and began to train accordingly volunteering to take the odd class and pass my L3 award in education and training. A job opportunity came up and I was encouraged by my Deaf tutor to go for it and was delighted when I got offered the position. In my first year I managed to get 10 employees to pass their level 1. When the Deaf school closed down I was mortified I wanted to continue teaching and so a friend and I set up a Bsl for fun sessions for kids. This was greatly received with 10/10 children passing their 101 exam and 4/10 going on to complete the level 1 course with me at Hearing Hand's Bsl when I went self -employed in 2016. Since then I have expanded to offer courses for Adults and continue to teach children as young as 6. I am hearing and teach so that you begin to understand the language, its structure and grammar. Once you begin to lay the foundation blocks we build the vocabulary up week by week and reduce the use of our voices to communicate. I try to use different teaching strategies to help the different ways in which people learn. My class sizes are small (upto 8) enabling me to work with you on a 1-1 basis for longer. My dream is to see Bsl taught in schools and as a language option for a gcse. I set up my business not to get rich but to continue teaching Bsl and encouraging conversations between two communities that might not have previously interacted. I am passionate about what I do and I hope that in the near future you will learn to sign with me at Hearing Hand's Bsl.