THE talented children of an Ammanford school have added a third language to their skills- sign language.

The pupils of Ysgol Parcyrhun have all learned to sign to take part in a sponsored sing song for a deaf health care charity and it meant they now speak English Welsh and use sign.

Today saw the whole school take part in the UK wide fundraiser sign2sing, signing and singing a specially written song- Reach Out Your Hand- during assembly to help raise funds for deaf charity SignHealth.

It was a simple choice for Parcyrhun to take part as the school has a deaf unit on site and some of the pupils are already learning to sign at the after school sign club.

The lessons are helping make the pupils of the deaf until feel more inclusive as well as teaching them new skills.

The deaf unit teacher Gill Brown said that dozens of children turn up after school each week to learn to sign.

Says Mrs Brown: “It’s great that they are all so willing to learn and it promotes a whole school inclusion ethos, which is brilliant for the pupils of the deaf unit.

“They’ve all worked so hard to learn the song and now they can say they know three languages.”

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Bethan Martin, head teacher adds: “We’re so excited to be taking part. It’s a fantastic way for children to learn how important communication is, while having fun mastering a little sign language and raising money to help improve the health of deaf people.”

Money raised by all schools taking part in sign2sing is used by Sign health to improve access to healthcare for deaf people.

SignHealth say deaf children are twice as likely to suffer some life threatening illnesses when they are adults.

“Learning sign language is easy to do and great fun,” explains Susie Norbury, SignHealth’s director of fundraising.

“The more that children learn to sign, the more included and less isolated deaf children will be.

“And the money this event raises is vital so we can continue to try to give deaf children the same chance of a life as healthy as their hearing friends.”