“It was a fantastic evening – Jonny had time for everyone,” she said.

“He was signing small rugby balls, cards and T-shirts for the kids, and chatting to everyone.”

He also presented 10-year-old Tess Hartland, of Hexham, with her prize for designing the winning logo now used for the children’s centre.

As part of the Government’s programme de-signed to give every child a good start in life, the centre works with parents, child-minders and other professionals dealing with children up to the age of four.

Source:Hexham Courant

A PIONEERING website designed to help deaf children with their literacy skills is being developed in the North East.

Signed Stories will put some of the best known contemporary children’s books on the web in British Sign Language, with audio, animation and text.

It will be the first website in the world which will give deaf children access to story telling and will feature voice overs from many North East celebrities.
As well as being fully signed, each story will feature a celebrity story teller who will voice the words and the text will appear on screen, allowing the whole family to join in with the story telling.

Celebrities from this region who have already signed up to add their voices include Jonny Wilkinson, Jill Halfpenny, Brendan Foster and Kevin Whately and the books of Newcastle author David Almond are to feature. The website is scheduled to go live in December this year and is currently being tested.