London’s City Lit college toasts centenary with #HearMyLips campaign and House of Commons tea

By Juliet England.

It’s not every day you enjoy a champagne afternoon tea at the Houses of Parliament as dusk gathers over the Thames. But it’s not every day you turn 100 – and that’s how central London adult education provider City Lit launched its centenary year this month.

The college has long been associated with deaf education, alongside initiatives including family provision and lifelong learning.

Indeed, when it started out in September 1919, with fewer than 150 students, among the earliest learners were former First Word War soldiers who had become deafened on the battlefield. The college also played a role in establishing BSL as a language in its own right.

Today, there are thousands of courses and hundreds of tutors teaching everything from Gaelic to ceramics, cello to public speaking to coping with stammering. Last year, students completed a million learning hours.

Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on deafness, Jim Fitzpatrick, hosted the event at the Pavilion Terrace, Westminster, attended by politicians including Education Secretary Damian Hinds and MP David Lammy. Friends of City Lit from organisations as diverse as the Royal British Legion and London Business School were also there, rubbing shoulders with dozens of former and present staff and students.

As principal Mark Malcomson told me afterwards: “We could have just had a party, and it would have been very pleasant. But we felt the time was right to use our centenary to do something else.”

And so, with a ‘great sense of urgency’ City Lit has launched its national #HearMyLips campaign as a cornerstone of its centenary, to raise awareness of the importance of lipreading and train more teachers.

“London has many resources,” added Malcomson, “But we want lipreading to be taught in communities across the UK – including in unusual or non-traditional settings. Learning doesn’t have to take place in a classroom.

“Before long, everyone will know someone affected by hearing loss. Deaf education has never been more important.”

Guests at the reception watched a video featuring artist and documentary maker Grayson Perry urging support for the lipreading campaign.

“I myself have quite significant hearing loss and got it from too much motorbiking. Social situations can be very tricky,” Perry explained.

With more of us getting older, and more of us wearing headphones more of the time, the film continued, lipreading and awareness of it are growing increasingly critical. By 2031, one in five in the UK, or 14 million people, will experience some form of hearing loss.

Speakers also mentioned that deafness often falls between health and education departments, and stressed the importance of those working in social services understanding the issues involved.

Speaking after the film, Damian Hinds congratulated City Lit on a ‘marvellous milestone’ and thanked the college for ‘a hundred amazing years.’

He added: “More Londoners choose short courses here than anywhere else. There’s a real poignancy that this is also the centenary of the end of World War One, and those first courses taught returned solders.

“Today, City Lit is a centre of excellence and lifelong learning champion that continues to help people feel less isolated, and regain confidence. I am delighted to support the celebrations.”

Hinds also said the government appreciated the cultural significance of BSL as the first or preferred language of 70,000 in the UK. He added that while the government hadn’t planned to change the curriculum in the current Parliament, it is in the process of reviewing a proposal for a BSL GCSE.

The London gathering also heard from former City Lit student Lisa Weller, who spoke movingly of her progressive hearing loss, which began when she was in her early thirties, due to a middle-ear condition.

“I became increasingly withdrawn, it started affecting relationships and was a factor in the breakdown of my first marriage,” she explained.

“I began lipreading classes it made a difference within weeks. I had no idea how it would change my life. I learned strategies I’d never heard of, regained confidence and self-esteem, and no longer felt stupid.”

Head of lipreading and acquired hearing loss at City Lit Lorraine Braggins, who taught Weller, stressed that acquired hearing loss wasn’t a problem confined to the older generation. Among her current students were many younger people who had poor hearing through issues ranging from meningitis to chemotherapy to a street attack.

She urged: “It’s not seen as a priority as it’s an invisible problem, yet it dominates every aspect of life. If you break a limb you get physio, but there’s no automatic referral for hearing therapy after hearing aids have been issued.

“This doesn’t make economic sense. With the right care, money spent on hearing aids would be well spent.”

Braggins stressed the need for lipreading wherever people are, and cited as examples of good practice two NHS trusts who were sponsoring audiologists to become lipreading teachers, a High Street optician where lipreading teachers were giving lessons, and a Royal Navy base where classes were being held.

Jim Fitzpatrick, who has worn hearing aids since his early fifties, when he worked for London Fire Brigade, urged attendees to write to their MP encouraging them to join the all-party parliamentary group on deafness.

He admitted that this should be a more powerful lobbying group, and that 150 or 200 members would be better than the current tally of just 40 MPs, which he said, gave the group a ‘limited’ profile. However, it does have good allies, Fitzpatrick added, for example in the

Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Chatting afterwards, David Lammy, a lifetime City Lit fellow, said he supported the college’s drive for adult learning, adding “I’m keen to join a sign language class myself next year.”

By Juliet England. Read more of Juliet’s articles for us here.

Juliet England is a hearing-impaired freelance writer.