Marland Hill has specialist provision for hearing impaired children in its Hearing Impaired Resource Base [HIRB]. This is staffed by highly skilled teaching assistants and a teacher of the deaf. Staff are trained in British Sign Language.  When Marland Hill was rebuilt in 2006 it was designed with hearing impaired children at the heart of the design. All classrooms are equipped with Soundfield systems, which can provide enhanced sound systems across the classroom through the built in speaker system.

The curriculum for these children is highly personalised, and where appropriate, combines individualised lessons in the HIRB, and time in mainstream classes. Children in the HIRB regularly spend time working on their targets, taking part in pre and post tutoring sessions, and working on speech and language objectives. All hearing impaired children at Marland Hill, have daily equipment checks, immediate access to specialist staff, speech and language sessions, and personalised time in the unit. All levels of hearing impaired children are welcome at Marland Hill, and can expect an individualised curriculum.

Our vision is to equip all our students with the skills to reach their full potential and alongside this, to see all students grow into confident, successful individuals with a strong self-belief and a positive deaf identify.

The aims of the HIRB are:

• To facilitate access to the National Curriculum for our deaf pupils, whilst catering for their individual needs.
• To create an environment that encourages the development of physical, intellectual, and language, emotional, social and communication skills.
• To give the children the opportunity to express themselves and their ideas with confidence.
• To provide specialist teaching from trained ToD/ support staff.
• To contribute to the overall assessment of the child’s needs.
• To plan and carry out an appropriate programme of learning for each child
• To develop independence and management of all audiological equipment including hearing aids and implant devices.