Sarah-Jade Walker: I’m a deaf BSL teacher and I recently won an award! (BSL)

My name is Sarah-jade and I am from York. I have lived there for all of my life until I recently moved to Selby which is about 15 miles away. I was born profoundly deaf and had my cochlear implant when I was 3 and a half years old. I was the 3rd youngest child to have it done at Bradford at the time back in 1993.

I’m a BSL Teacher and I teach all ages from babies to adults. I believe everyone should be able to learn BSL. I love my job. I get to work with babies and I meet wonderful adults everyday.

My business is called Sign with Sarah-jade. I teach babies and toddlers signing classes. I also teach a 4 weeks short BSL Bootcamp and a 10 week course too.

I also go to venues such as Lollipop Lane (a little shop for those under 5 years old) and I teach the people there BSL. Deaf children come to my class and I teach them fun BSL lessons. It’s important to make it fun. I believe learning through play is really important.

I believe teaching and learning visually is so important, so in my classes I bring out toys for babies and toddlers groups. I recently did a Halloween theme so I brought pumpkins, ghosts, spiders and black cats. I got the children to count pumpkins with me and I made it fun by passing toys to their parents. We also read a book in BSL. I use my voice too for the babies and toddlers group.

When the working with adults I believe learning through play is important too. I teach numbers then I make it fun by playing cards so they can interact and ask questions in BSL.

Quite a few people inspired me to teach BSL. Back when I was studying BSL Level 6 and Teaching qualifications level 3 at the time, I really wanted to be a BSL teacher. I was offered a promising job but in the end it didn’t work out and my confidence was knocked. I didn’t think I was good enough.

Years went by and I started to think I may not be able to get into a BSL teaching career again because it had been a while. So I gave up my dream. Then when I had my 2 children I was thinking about what i want in my life. I admitted that I really wanted to be a BSL teacher.

A retired social worker who worked in the disability field told me I should do it as they think I am good at it. Another good friend was pushing me to get help and support to find out what I really want to do career wise.

I was thinking back and forth for a good 2 months then suddenly my mind become so clear. I thought “I am not going to let this go, I will make it a reality.” My husband said I don’t want to be wondering ‘what ifs’ for rest of my life. If the business failed then at least I tried.

So I went to get help from ATI (Action Toward Inclusive) who offer advice and support. The lady there built my network and I met so many deaf teachers with all of them encouraging me to give ahead. We need more Deaf teachers.

Then my business was born in April 2023. Since then it has been thriving and I have met so many amazing people. Watching little babies signing. seeing their proud parents faces is wonderful. Seeing children communicating with less frustration between them all, I feel so proud to see how I make an impact.

There have been challenges along the way. I had to fill out forms to book a room and the staff kept saying I have to pay the room via a phone call. I kept reminding them that I’m deaf but they wouldn’t send out bank details for me to pay or keep the room until I went to them to pay it. By the time my mum called for me the room had gone. It really dragged me down that I couldn’t even make the bookings. I faced so many barriers but that was the worst one for me. It felt like they won’t even think about Deaf people.

Since then I was very lucky to get my own office so I can pay it each month and I am able to book a room anytime I want. It is better that way.

People should know better to have more accessible ways to make payments. I couldn’t independently do this, I had to rely on hearing people to make this payment for me.

An assumption I have found is that people think if we can speak then therefore we can hear fire alarms and take phone calls. My hearing friends and family will correct me if I can’t pronounce a word properly, then I get frustrated. With BSL I have 100% understandin.

BSL is a beautiful language. I can express my feelings, emotions and roles shifts. I have 100% understanding with my friends. I can take my Cochlear implant off and have 100% conversations without barriers.

I taught my children BSL too. My little girl is so confident to sign BSL outside. She also feels happier to sign BSL when she is upset or angry.

Recently a lady called Val nominated me for the York Mix Award. That really touched my heart. I didn’t know she thought that highly of me and made time to send an email to York Mix Award about me. I will never forget it.

When York Mix contacted me to say I’m one of finalists to go to the Award Ceremony, I didn’t believe them till I googled the event and saw the other finalists.

The lady who nominated me – Val – is a grandmother to her grandson who comes to the toddlers signing class. She is a teacher assistant at Primary schoolan previously learnt Makaton to communicate with her pupils. She wanted to see what BSL like so she came to my BSL Bootcamp (4 weeks short course) to learn how to have conversations in BSL. She really enjoyed it. She also came to my summer special event which was ‘We are going on a bear hunt.’

The past 3 weeks have been a whirlwind to find the perfect dress, organise childcare in preparation for the awards ceremony. The actual awards evening was amazing! It was so posh, I felt like a famous person who was going to an awards ceremony to collect their award on the telly!

I was thinking “wow! I’m really experiencing this right now!” I asked for BSL interpreter and they provided one. I was so thrilled to get 100% access to the entire evening instead of missing out or not understanding.

Val came with myself and my husband to the Awards Ceremony. She had to be there because this wouldn’t happened without her. We all had a really good night.

See what happens when you follow your dreams.

Sarah-Jade is on Facebook: Signwithsarah-jade Selby & York

 instagram:Sign with Sarah-jade (@signwithsarahjade) •