A Cumbrian charity which provides vital services to help deaf people in the county has shared its delight with the decision to add British Sign Language (BSL) as a GCSE school subject.

It was confirmed this week that BSL will be taught as a GCSE in England from September 2025.

BSL was officially recognised as a language in the UK last year, after the British Sign Language Act was passed, and now children across the country will have the opportunity to learn it during their time at school. 

Caroline Howsley, chief executive officer at the Cumbria Deaf Association, said: "In Cumbria this has been a long desired step forward because all too often deaf children, who use BSL, will go away to specialist deaf boarding schools and miss out on growing up in their local community.

"Cumbria Deaf Association has been preparing for this announcement with the introduction of a specialised training team this September, led by two deaf staff.

"Currently we deliver deaf awareness, introduction to sign language and are applying for our registration with Signature to become a registered centre to deliver Level 1 and 2 BSL.

"The next step for our tutors is the training to deliver GCSEs within classroom environments."

Cumbria Deaf Association is an independent charity based in Kendal, with centres in Barrow and Carlisle, and it provides businesses and schools with BSL interpreters and training.

Caroline added: "Within the deaf community there is a strong feeling that BSL should only be taught by deaf tutors, or people with a really strong connection to the deaf community, because BSL as a language is only part of deaf culture. You need to understand the culture to enable real learning of BSL.

"Cumbria Deaf Association is well placed to lead on supporting both practical and experiential learning.

"GCSE BSL does not only improve access to language for deaf people, it helps their peers broaden their skills and, has been found beneficial for some neurodiverse people because it is an action language, and for someone who is non-verbal it offers a meaningful way to communicate with other people."