Tuesday 21st December 2010

Schoolchildren in Chesterfield heard first hand about life in Parliament when their local MP visited their school last week.



Natascha Engel, MP for NE Derbyshire visited New Whittington Primary School (pictured above in class), an Enhanced Resource School, with Hearing Impaired Units on both the Infant and Junior sites.

The school, which caters for children aged between 3-11 has integrated hearing impaired children into mainstream classes for over 40 years and teaches children to sign.

Natascha was able to talk about her own experience of working for deaf and hearing-impaired people as a subtitler for Teletext before entering into politics.

Whilst at the school, Natascha spoke to staff members and looked at work going on in several classes.

She spoke to pupils and answered their questions about her work as a Member of Parliament and also watched a class of children demonstrate their sign language skills by interpreting the words of the Christmas carol 'Away in a Manger'.

Commenting on her visit, Natascha said, "I enjoyed my visit to the school and was impressed at the way deaf and hearing impaired children are able to attend a mainstream school and communicate with other children who are learning sign language.

"What is even more wonderful is that many young people are learning a skill that very few people have. I wish the school every success in the future."

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