Ten-year-old Ruby Tuckley from Wallingford taught sign language to her fellow pupils and staff at St John’s Primary School in Wallingford for a charity world record breaker yesterday (February 6, 2013).
Ruby and her Mum Hannah Bullen, who is deaf, were joined by pupils and SignHealth’s mascot, Olli the monkey for the sign2sing world record breaking attempt on Wednesday February 6.
Jane Ratcliffe, Headteacher at St John’s Primary School on St John’s Road, said: “Ruby taught the whole school, including myself, the signs to ‘sign2sing’. Ruby was particularly keen to get involved with the world record breaker as her Mum is deaf. She even registered the school to take part.
“We were all really excited to be involved in the sign2sing world record breaking attempt for the most people signing and singing a song at the same time. It was a fantastic event.”
Young people from all over the country and overseas signed a song called ‘sign2sing’, which was composed especially for the event.
Steve Powell, Chief Executive at SignHealth, which is the national healthcare charity for deaf people, said: “It’s fantastic that Ruby was so enthusiastic about the event and managed to get the whole school on board to take part. We are thrilled that St John’s Primary School took part in the world record breaking attempt for the first time.
“sign2sing is also a fundraiser for us through a suggested £1 donation from everyone taking part. Children were asked to wear a scarf like Olli the monkey to school on the day of sign2sing and take in their £1 donation.”
The money raised from the event will be used to continue the charity’s work helping to improve the mental and physical health and well-being of deaf people, including deaf children.
Steve continued: “Hundreds of schools from all over the country and overseas registered to take part in our Guinness World Record sign2sing project for the most people signing and singing at the same time.
“They range in size from 30 to 800 pupils, which, from our calculations, means more than 135,000 schoolchildren took part in the event. The exact number of participants will be confirmed by Guinness World Records™ at a later date.
“The previous world record, which we set last year, was 114,277 so we are hoping to have smashed this.
“It has been a truly fantastic event and we’re extremely grateful for everyone who took part. At the moment we’re still counting the money raised but we’re hoping it will make a significant contribution to the work of SignHealth.
“The song, entitled ‘sign2sing’, is also now available for people to download. It can be purchased from iTunes and various other digital music outlets, and costs a maximum of 79 pence per download.
“We hope lots of people will download the song. It would be great to see it in the charts and get even more people talking about sign2sing.”
For more information about sign2sing, please visit the website above or contact SignHealth on 01494 687600. Alternatively, sign2sing is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/sign2sing and on Facebook
I look so I can hear.... 
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