Scarborough woman to retire after 48 years of working with children with sensory needs

Judith McCulloch has devoted her entire working life to supporting children with a range of disabilities across North Yorkshire.

Her career has spanned a total of 48 years, initially starting at the age of 18 as an ancillary assistant supporting two children with physical needs in a mainstream primary school in Scarborough.

When a new resource base for deaf/hearing impaired children opened in the school, Judith became a teaching assistant at the base.

She learned sign language and delivered support, both in classrooms and working one-to-one with the children.

Judith’s role then widened to support in the education of both hearing impaired and visually impaired children across North Yorkshire.

Colleague Sarena Everall said: “Her work touched the families of hundreds of children with sensory need and she has been an outstanding member of the service.

“She was often the person who was there to listen to parents of newly diagnosed vision or hearing impaired children.

“She never faltered from displaying an acute awareness of the needs of those she supported.”

As a skills facilitator, Judith trained further to enable visually impaired children to learn braille and develop their everyday independent living skills and travel training.

At the same time, she would visit hearing impaired children either at the home, supporting both children and parents, in nurseries or in nearby schools.

More recently, Judith’s role has evolved into one of Specialist Practitioner, she now specialises in supporting hearing impaired children in education.

During the Covid pandemic, Judith was always creative in how best to support the needs of the children and was deployed into a local primary school, supporting a hearing impaired child to access their learning through British Sign Language.

During this time, she shared her signing skills both face to face and online with families, school teachers, teaching assistants and other children within the class.

This had a lasting effect on schools enabling them to become deaf friendly in their approach.

As Covid measures ceased, Judith got together with her colleagues and planned a Big Get Together for the families of the children she supported.

This resulted in 22 families across North Yorkshire sharing fun together at both Playdale and Newby Hall for which Judith and her colleagues were awarded runners up at the North Yorkshire Innovation Awards.

Sarena said: “Judith is incredibly skilled and aware of how to engage families and children to ensure the best outcomes for all.

“She is creative in how this is delivered to ensure that people still feel valued for the contributions they are making.

“As a colleague, Judith has a natural ability to bring a team together with both a sense of humour and her incredible skills in crafting and pickling.

“As a service we are incredibly grateful for the many years of dedication and knowledge she has contributed to the children, families and schools we support.

“We know that Judith will have many other brilliant experiences and opportunities she will wish to explore in her upcoming years of retirement.

“We wish her all the fun and enjoyment in the exciting years ahead.”