Professional Development Programme

Member/Supporter £235 incl. VAT if booked before 29.08.08
Member/Supporter £285 incl. VAT if booked after 29.08.08
(Non-member £470)

Robert Adam BEd, BA, M.AppLing is a Deaf native signer who works as a postgraduate researcher at the Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre and is based at City University as a researcher on the Sign Segmentation Project, a three-year ESRC funded project. Robert has been involved with Sign Language teaching for a number of years, most recently as Teacher Coordinator at City Lit in London. Robert has also taught at the National Institute for Deaf Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia before joining the Australian Sign Language Lexicography Project at Renwick College, The Univeristy of Newcastle in Sydney as a research associate.

Derek Rodger is head of the Science Department and a member of the Senior Management Team at Oak Lodge School, London. Derek has been heavily involved in training deaf people to become teachers and mentoring trainee TOD on teaching placements for the past three years. Prior to becoming a teacher of the deaf, Derek studied Sign Language teaching at the University of Bristol, taught various Sign Language courses and was a CACDP BSL Examiner. Over the past two years Derek has developed a specific research interest looking at the grammatical features of BSL, and how this impacts upon modifying communication for developing users of BSL.

Member/Supporter £235 incl. VAT if booked before 05.09.08
Member/Supporter £285 incl. VAT if booked after 05.09.08
(Non-member £470)

Maureen Bergson and Roger Beeson are both Members of the Register of BSL/English Interpreters with more than ten years experience of interpreting in the Metropolitan Police Service area. Maureen was a social worker before becoming a full-time interpreter. Roger was deputy head of a school for Deaf children.

More information to follow soon

Following feedback from a half-day workshop in the London & South East Region in February 2008 a 2-day residential course has been developed. Clare Seal from Devon & Cornwall region has joined the team and we are pleased to be able to offer this practical skills based workshop. There will be a focus on the voice itself, voiceover tips and techniques and opportunites to put theory into practice using recorded materials and Deaf contributors. Working within a safe environment, you will have plenty of opportunites to practice. The residential base will offer ways to explore differing requirements of BSL to English work in different settings.

Dave Phippard started his involvement with the Deaf community in the 1990s in Brighton completing BSL stage II at Hamilton Lodge school with Simon Hessleberg. He then went on to Wolverhampton University for the Interpreting Degree, completed in 2000. He went on to qualify in 2004 through the NVQ route. Dave worked for 6 years at Just Communication gaining experience through shadowing/observing and eventually becoming a senior member of the team working in a wide variety of settings. Since 2006 he has worked freelance and brings his experiences to share with others.

Clare Seal has a Post Graduate Diploma in Interpreting as is training to be an ASLI Mentor. She has worked with Devon's Deaf Community since 1986 in various roles. Her love for the spoken word has also been expressed through her writing. She has had stories and plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which has taught her the power of the human voice. She is looking forward to sharing ideas about sign-to-voice interpreting.

David Wolfenden began interpreting in 1988 after a two week residential Interpreter Development course with the RNID and copious amounts of on-the-job experience with invaluable feedback and support from the local Deaf Community. Since then he has worked in a wide variety of settings ranging from GPs to Court, Nature Rambles to Live Television broadcasts. Now an MRSLI after completing a Post Graduate Diploma in 2001, he is also an ASLI Trained Mentor. David is an interpreter who learns best by experience and is keen to share his with others.