Our British Sign Language Journey

Since April 2026, staff from Lewisham Best Start Family Hubs have been taking part in a weekly Level 1 British Sign Language (BSL) course, and we have learnt so much along the way!

From learning the BSL alphabet, numbers and fingerspelling to signing colours, days of the week, seasons, weather, family, hobbies and directions, the course has given us lots of useful new skills.

We have also been learning how to have everyday conversations in BSL, including talking about how we travel to work, our favourite foods and hobbies, pets and animals, and how to describe someone's appearance, personality and age.

Learning a new language can certainly be challenging, but it has also been fun, interesting and very rewarding.

For our Best Start Family Hub team, BSL is a particularly valuable skill to have. The course is helping us build our confidence in communicating in different ways while continuing to strengthen inclusion and accessibility across our Lewisham Family Hubs.

We are proud of what we have learnt so far and look forward to putting our new skills into practice!