A new school for Jenson: mum wins school place for deaf son after year-long battle

In September, we reported on the case of Jenson Lindop-Lamens, now eight, whose mother told us he hadn’t been at school for months. He now has his place. Juliet England caught up with the family.

A deaf boy who hasn’t been taught in class all year because he couldn’t be offered full-time BSL support now has a place at the family’s first-choice school.

Jenson Lindop-Lamens’s mum Jenny, 37, and father Richard, 41, say they began a lengthy battle with Cheshire East Council after their son left Lindow Primary in Wilmslow near the end of 2017 because of the lack of full-time sign language support.

Since then, his parents have been trying to get Jenson into a suitable local primary school – and say the council claimed their son didn’t need to use BSL in the classroom full time.

The family’s situation was widely reported in the regional and national media, and their MP Fiona Bruce also stepped in with a letter to help.

Although the case was due to be heard at an educational tribunal this month, Jenny Lindop-Lamens said: “In the end that never happened. Cheshire East came to my home to assess Jenson – probably due to all the media attention – and decided that deafness was indeed his primary need, and that he needed a signing school, which they couldn’t provide in Cheshire East.

“I was obviously very happy with this, but saddened it had taken so long for them to contact me. The woman who did the assessment was the very person who had written a report 12 months earlier diagnosing him as needing a special school.”

Jenson now has a school place at Knotty Ash Primary School, and is currently having transition days there before taking up a full-time place in January, when he will have been out of school for more than a year. For the last six months, the council has provided tuition at home for two hours a day. Lindop-Lamens says she had to fight the council for this temporary measure.

Knotty Ash is a mainstream school with a specialist deaf unit and 14 profoundly deaf children, who communicate through sign language. Indeed, the whole school is taught sign language to minimise barriers with hearing pupils.

While Jenson could have started at this school a year ago, the family say the council insisted the boy didn’t need a BSL-focused school, amid claims that Jenson’s Educational Healthcare Plan (EHP) had not been updated to include his need to be educated in BSL. (His mother insists this paperwork is still out of date.)

Jenson became deaf at 16 months due to bacterial meningitis, and has undergone three rounds of brain surgery. Lindop-Lamens says she thinks her son’s brain is still recovering from the meningitis.

She adds: “He’s just doing odd afternoons in school for now, but he loves it. He runs in and doesn’t want to leave, which is lovely to see. I was worried about him settling because of how long he’d been off. He likes PE in particular and just being with his new friends. It’s the best feeling in the world seeing Jenson surrounded by other deaf and signing children.

“If I’d listened to Cheshire East, my son would be in a special school with no form of communication, getting further behind and unable to make friends or be educated. I’m completely overwhelmed the nightmare is over, but it’s a bittersweet victory – I feel Cheshire East has ruined our precious time for 18 months. I believe this is all down to a complete lack of understanding and knowledge of a profoundly deaf child’s needs. It’s also disappointing there’s been no apology.

“It’s affected me mentally, and I’ll never get that lost time back. It’s all about money and that’s why they have kept saying my son doesn’t need a deaf school.”

She added that it had also been a battle to get the right transport for Jenson. (Because Cheshire has no provision for BSL-dependent pupils, by law they have to provide transport to the nearest signing school.)

Lindop-Lamens claims the council wanted to choose a taxi firm to take Jenson to Knotty Ash in Liverpool, but a local family friend who knows him offered to provide the service.

“Any other taxi company would have had to have visited Jenson to get to know him, causing more delays. Cheshire East finally agreed to my request to use a firm we knew eventually, but it was just one more thing to fight for.

“Throughout this, lots of people got in touch to offer support and tell me to keep going. Many were total strangers and it was much appreciated when I was feeling low and exhausted. I wouldn’t have got where we did without it.”

In a statement, Councillor Jos Saunders, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for children and families, said: “Cheshire East Council endeavours to meet all children’s educational needs. In this case, the assessment identified the need for a more specialist provision. The closest and most suitable school is at Knotty Ash.

“We have been working closely with the school to secure a place for Jenson. We believe it is well equipped to meet his educational needs and we wish him well at his new school.” 

Read more of Juliet’s articles for us here.

Juliet England is a hearing-impaired freelance writer.