So many children every day
So many ways to learn and play
So many ways to hear
Or not

So many hearing aids to test
So much deciding what is best
Depending what she hears
Or not

So many teachers meeting me
So many helpers want to see
What it is like to hear
Or not

So many parents that I know
So many feelings that they show
On learning what their child can hear
Or not

So should we sign or should we speak?
So many choices every week …
And can they hear
Or not?

So many journeys on the train
So many hearing tests the same
And do they hear
Or not?

So many schools for us to choose
So many factors to confuse
Whether they hear
Or not

Yet…

So many things that we can share
So many ways to show we care
No matter what he hears
Or not


So many ways to learn so much
So many signs or words and such
A lot we hear
Or not

By Helena Ballard
Teacher of the Deaf

Three bags and a box
As I lurch through the door
Of someone’s front room

Three jingly bags
As I jump in the car
Much too late - or too soon

Bags of aids, strings of wires
But I can’t make them work
So let’s play with balloons

Here’s a toy house, a teddy
Bright bells and a drum
Let’s join in a tune

Is the hearing aid working?
The test box is not
Oh I’m such a buffoon!

Three bags and a box
But my handbag is left
In a far off classroom

I’ve got too much to do
Three reports and a letter
Such doom and such gloom

Then a baby will smile
Or a mother give tea
And the world is much better.

By Helena Ballard
Teacher of the Deaf

By Midas the absence of sound is touched –
It’s said, but never by those without choice.
To never hear a voice from flesh and blood,
In trepidation or delight converse,
Must truly be a curse misunderstood.

From cradle to grave, not a single tune
From nature to save as a memory.
Cruel waves will never crash upon their shores,
Nor hands like hammers knock upon their doors.

They are never to hear the canines bark,
In the park on a sunny afternoon,
Or the soft pitter patter of rainfall,
Or the engines rev in the traffics boom.

Never to hear awakening songbirds sing,
But only to spy the feathered ones fly.

Never to hear musical beats galore,
But only to feel from the floorboards up.

Never to hear smoky back bacon fry,
But only to smell as the rashers spit.

Never to hear the crunch of an apple,
But only to taste the forbidden fruit.

Forever encaged in a soundproof booth,
In which fingers and thumbs replace voices.
It’s eternal charades, thus the silent
Exchange, and the future, is in their hands.

By Ben Hardstaff

What a great way to learn to spell
When you can use your fingers as well

Learn the finger-spelling alphabet
It’s a useful way and very adept

We use our fingers when doing Maths
Adding, dividing and when we subtract

So why not with letters, you know it makes sense
And then it doesn’t matter if you forget your pens!!


Teresa Mewse
Learning Support Assistant
Thomas Tallis School, London

Life and Deaf poetry! Wow! Just what I need
To read what the kids think, and keep up to speed
So, what's on the disc now? Let's have a look
Ah! signed poetry by kids who appear in the book

There's Zeon, Irina, La Toya and Sean
Some verses are funny and others forlorn
There's Hayley, Mayuri and Richard and Chi
The poetry's honest and good, so why lie?

It's all said with feeling, and comes from the heart
Let's have some more, please, it's only the start
So Mustafa, Tiffany, Bianca and Terry
Get out those pencils and start to make merry.

Start writing some stuff which makes everyone smile
And impress us again with a poetry pile
There's Lukas and Sarah and Do ua or die
So just Do ua it! and don't ever stop to ask why.

Why shouldn't you write down the thoughts in your head
It's far better than bottling them all up instead
So what about trying some real funny stuff
Not easy, I know, in fact it's quite tough.

So first think about what might make you laugh
Like a huge cochlear implant upon a giraffe!
Or a monkey that signs when it's needing a drink
Or anything really, whatever you think!


Jack Hardstaff
Teacher of the Deaf
Woodlands School