My Philosophy
I am passionate about equal access and inclusion for everyone. With a hearing loss myself, I have had plenty of moments out and about where I've been frustrated at the lack of basic awareness about how to communicate effectively with someone with a hearing loss. This led to me offering services for businesses to raise the profile of hearing loss, training staff to be more aware and help companies become more accessible.
I also offer British Sign Language (BSL) classes in Oxfordshire. There are over 150,000 BSL users currently in the UK. With my business, Oxford BSL, I firmly believe in communication for all, so hope that by offering classes more people can learn to communicate with those in the Deaf community.
I am committed to providing an in-depth education, giving you the knowledge and tools to have conversations with confidence and use your skills in a range of situations. I'm not just about vocabulary and passing exams, I'm about helping you learn a lifelong skill you can use in your professional or personal life.
Director and Teacher
Suzi Sentance
MA PGDip PGCE BA(Hons)
I began to lose my hearing in 2014. I now have a moderate-severe loss and wear two hearing aids. It was a good excuse to start to learn BSL; I'd always been interested in the language since learning how to fingerspell when I was 8 years old! I am currently finishing my Level 6 qualification and began my Level 6 Diploma in sign language interpreting in April this year.
I was a mainstream primary teacher for ten years, in Greenwich and Oxford, before leaping at the chance to become a Qualified Teacher of Deaf Children and Young People (QToD) for Oxfordshire County Council in 2019. It gave me the opportunity to use my BSL skills in a professional setting and have regular access to a wonderful group of highly-skilled signers, both fellow QToDs and the Communication Support Workers in the team.
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I'm very active in my local Deaf community, joining almost every week for coffee mornings and social evenings. It gives me the opportunity to sign with native BSL users regularly and be involved. I'm a fierce advocate for myself and my friends which is where my whole business has come from; teaching more people to sign and also educating as many people as possible about how to be inclusive and accessible for those of us with hearing loss!