Are you looking for a BSL course in Wales?
Our new Level 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 courses will be starting in September.
Level 1 Course £320 (including exam fees)
Level 2 Course £445 (including exam fees)
Our prices are the most competitive in Wales.
A range of classes are available, face to face, live online or through a pre-recorded distance learning course.
Interested or want to know more, email sarah@deaf-friendly.co.uk
The best news in the world is that a BSL GCSE will be available on the national curriculum in Wales from September 2026. Will children be interested in learning BSL? Well we’ll just have to wait and see, but from the involvement we have had with schools and the Welsh Government, all the signs are positive. “I couldn’t be more excited about it”, Sarah Lawrence told us, “I’m imagining a Wales when I’m an old lady where I can walk into a shop, a cafe, a restaurant, the doctor’s surgery, anywhere really, and I’ll be met by someone working there who can sign with me. What a game changer that will be.”
Since the decision to introduce the BSL (Wales) GCSE, we have been developing programmes of BSL suitable for children in Year 1 upwards to start to learn BSL from scratch. We have been delighted by the interest from some schools, and have been delivering what is called Progression Step 1 in schools since the start of September. In some schools, BSL has been offered to a single class, and in others, BSL has been offered to every child, giving those children the opportunity to be ready to start their GCSE when they join Year 10 or 11. “The response from the schools aware that a GCSE is being introduced in 2026 has been amazing,” said Sarah, “The work we have done on the Progression Step curriculum has proved hugely beneficial and the feedback we have had from the children and the staff has been amazing.”
Through the courses already run, the curriculum being delivered by Deaf Friendly Limited has been proven to be right on the money, with children enjoying signed conversations within hours of starting to learn. The curriculum design focuses on linguistically perfect BSL, BSL sign order and the precision needed to sign well. “The children have just lapped it up”, said Sarah, “With adults, we expect a learning rate of 12 – 15 signs an hours, with the children it tends to be between 100 – 150. The excitement, the signing rigour, and the enthusiasm of these children has just blown me away. I cannot wait to see what happens when the GCSE is available.”
If you or your school are interested in accessing BSL tuition form our team of experts, just email sarah@deaf-friendly.co.uk
Having been told that BSL was for “stupid” children when she was in Primary School, Deaf Friendly’s owner and Director Sarah Lawrence has been championing access to BSL by all deaf children ever since. Having set up PremierBSL Limited to provide student’s access to full Level 1 and 2 BSL courses through an online distance learning course, Sarah has decided to offer free access to these courses to any deaf child from birth to 25 living in Wales.
The Level 1 and Level 2 courses are usually sold at £135 and £175 respectively, and have been used by learners to achieve formal Ofqual regulated BSL qualifications. As pre-recorded courses, learners are able to learn BSL at their convenience, whenever and wherever they happen to be, whether that is for a 5-minute drop in session, or a more structured hour session online. Feedback on these courses has been overwhelming.
“This is no gimmick of an offer to give FREE access”, said Sarah. “I was denied BSL when in school by my Teacher of the Deaf, and yet BSL has defined my life, giving me an income, a social life and access to the post school world. My teacher of the deaf might have been well-meaning, but it frightens me to think of what I might have done with my life, had I not found my own route to learning and flourishing through BSL. With my businesses doing alright, I can offer deaf youngsters free access to my courses, and I am delighted to do so.”
To get free access, young people will have to prove their age and that they are deaf. An email to sarah2@premierbsl.co.uk is all that is needed to gain access to the online courses. Learners will have to pay for their own exam fees.
Founded by Sarah Lawrence in 1999, Deaf Friendly Limited has been delivering Deaf Awareness Training and BSL Taster sessions for over 24 years.
Informed by her lived experience and fuelled by a positive attitude to finding solutions, Deaf Friendly’s BSL taster sessions and deaf awareness training focus on positive outcomes and enhancing quality of life for deaf people and their loved ones. Despite running training sessions for nearly a quarter of a century, Deaf Friendly continues to evolve, ensuring training is relevant to everyday work and social life, embracing the technological advances that have benefitted deaf life. This attitude to fine-tuning and remaining relevant drives course design, and testimonials from courses last week alone are testament to our delivery:
Thank you to those who entrust us to deliver training and giving us the opportunity to prevent isolation in work, at home and generally in life.
On April 1st, 2023 Deaf Friendly Limited acquired the SLFirst online Deaf Magazine. Whilst still read by people from all over the world, the SLFirst magazine had been inactive for some years. The magazine is now called Deaf Friendly Magazine. It will remain as a FREE to access magazine, and will continue to share information and stories linked to deaf life, sport, entertainment and education. As most of the services Deaf Friendly Limited offers are linked to adult and child education, the education section of the magazine will be the most active section of the magazine.
Published articles will remain of interest to deaf and hard of hearing readers, parents and guardians of deaf children, educators and employers of deaf people.
Commenting on the acquisition, Cardiff based Deaf Friendly Limited owner and Director Sarah Lawrence said, “The SLFirst Magazine became popular across the world in a matter of months, and it is of great sadness that insufficient time meant that nothing was published for some time. With Deaf Friendly Limited now taking over the magazine, we hope to keep anyone interested in deafness updated with the latest and most important information, with short, sharp and focused articles. SLFirst remains the only magazine in the world that is both written and signed, and under the new title, Deaf Friendly Magazine, we intend to continue that tradition, enabling language equality by interested parties.”
Sign Language Week is celebrated in March every year to acknowledge the formal recognition of BSL by the UK Government on the 18th March 2003 as a minority language of the United Kingdom. This year, we were delighted to receive an invitation from the Welsh Government’s Education Minister to celebrate Sign Language Week by teaching the Minister some British Sign Language, or some Welsh Regional BSL to be accurate.
Jeremy Miles MS, the Education Minister was warm, embracing and determined in his learning, respecting the level of precision needed to use BSL well. “I found it quite a joyous experience,” Sarah Lawrence signed, “and the respect given to me by the Education Minister was top level, which can be quite a rare experience.”
Short videos of the Minister signing were promoted across social media platforms, receiving widespread appreciation from the Deaf signing community from across Wales.
It’s #SignLanguageWeek 🧏
We caught up with Sarah from @Deaffriendly1 who taught us some BSL phrases, including:
✅ Happy BSL week
✅ I love BSL
✅ Gwlad gwlad, pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad ❤️🏴Why not join in and give BSL a go this week? pic.twitter.com/e0gpXjWnnb
— Welsh Government (@WelshGovernment) March 13, 2023