David Walker

Charlie Barnes, who is severely deaf, was presented to his new school by teacher Joanna Woods.

Charlie Barnes was a bundle of nerves on his first day at school.

The 5-year-old had to make new friends and adjust to an unfamiliar environment when he walked through the gates of Harewood School for the first time as a pupil on Wednesday last week.

He is also deaf.

David Walker

Ellena Barnes has helped introduce sign language into five year-old Charlie's new school.

Charlie's teacher, Joanna Woods, has gone the extra mile to help him fit in.

In advance of his arrival, she attended night classes for three terms last year to learn the basics of sign language and started introducing it to the new entrant syndicate.

"It's nice to do it for Charlie but it's something that the children really love," Woods said.

Charlie's hearing loss was diagnosed when he was six weeks old and it was not long before he had his first set of hearing aides.

His mother, Ellena Barnes said she grieved for a week following the diagnosis. She then picked herself up and began a journey to give her son the best life she could.

She and husband Justin – with their other two children, Ella, 8, and Nezaya, 1, have all learned New Zealand sign language.

"We want him [Charlie] to feel accepted in his hearing world and in his deaf world. And we want him to be proud of being deaf."

Now in their third year of private lessons with Debra Jamieson,  of the Van Asch Deaf Education Centre, funding from the Penny Went foundation has enabled signing lessons to be introduced at Harewood School.

"The kids are amazing in there. These are five and six year olds and they can get up there and finger spell their names and alphabet," Barnes said.

The funding covered 20 weeks of tuition this year for the junior and middle pupils at the school, where students were also taught about deaf culture, which would help to make Charlie feel comfortable in his new environment.

"It was really important for him to always be able to communicate."

Woods wore an FM, or radio aid, around her neck, which was linked directly to Charlie's hearing aides and fed her speech to him.

His severe hearing loss fluctuated and Barnes could sense through his frustration when his impairment was at its worst.

"It is just a matter of time before he loses it completely."

The hearing aides helped but they were still just "glorified microphones", Barnes said.

It was great Woods had learnt sign language, she said.

"That's made me feel more comfortable... because she's able to communicate with him so he's not missing out."

Woods said she had enjoyed learning sign language.

She would like to see taught in schools across the country, but resourcing, which was already stretched, would make it difficult to do so.

Sign language is used daily by more than 24,000 New Zealanders.

 - The Press