I am excited but at the same time I am angry – My wife and I have been fighting the system (both the Deaf school and the Ministry of education) for the past 21 years! It has gone from bad to worse in recent years. I know many in the community and families have fought for change for many years before us. But things are currently worse than they have ever been. … More Reaction to the Ombudsman’s opinion – Feb2024
Throughout our fight we have just wanted to be heard. We have wanted the decision makers to listen and either tells us why we couldn’t have a NZSL medium education or what their plans are for ensuring Deaf children have access to NZSL medium education.
Now seeing that the Ombudsman’s opinion is that the Ministry have not got timelines/plans in place to ensure that Deaf children will be able to access education in NZSL – we were right to keep fighting. … More The Ombudsman’s opinion! We feel vindicated!
Earlier this month we received a letter from the commissioner and acting principal of our son’s school – KTR Deaf Education NZ – asking us to “cease the negative posts and comments on the [Deaf Education NZ Facebook page]…” … More Deaf kids deserve better!
It is important to note that New Zealand Sign Language is an official language as is Te Reo Maori yet there are clear inequities between the two languages.
For Wellington families who have Te Reo Maori as the primary language, or families who do not speak Maori at home but want their children to have the connection to their language and culture, according to Education Counts https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/directories/maori-medium-schools they can choose to enrol their children in any of the following: … More We need a NZSL bilingual high school provision in Wellington! – we did not get a response to this…
“We had a constant fight to get a proper education for our daughter throughout her schooling. We had to move from Wellington to Christchurch, then Christchurch to Sydney to access curriculum for her in sign language.” … More Fighting For Deaf Education – MAS magazine article 2021
Today at the school sports afternoon, I witnessed something that brought tears to my eyes. To most parents, the interactions I observed would be insignificant and certainly not worthy of a social media post. But to me they were/are HUGELY SIGNIFICANT – I watched as the teachers communicated directly with Carter in NZSL using a … More 8th April 2021: The little conversations at school – THIS IS INCLUSION!
Carter has been an school for three weeks now and he loves it! Week one he was exhausted and a little shell shocked so there were a couple of days of teary mornings, but since then all good. He loves learning with Darryl, Mary and Addison. We love heading to school to pick him up … More 16 March 2021: ‘Wellington Deaf School’
I am really emotional at the moment. After nearly two decades of fighting for bilingual Deaf education in Wellington I am still trying to process what has happened – In September 2020 the Deaf school and the MoE all of a sudden did a 180 and announced that they would in fact be providing a … More 21 Feb 2021: After YEARS of asking, begging and fighting…Tomorrow Carter starts school at the NZSL Bilingual class, WELLINGTON!
The Ferguson Family 