Deafness is complex and profoundly misunderstood due to the heterogeneity of the deaf population and the dominant hearing society that we inhabit. Most deaf children and young people in the UK attend mainstream schools, yet they are arguably ill-served by the current ideology of inclusive education, and their voices are rarely heard. Research demonstrates that deaf students are at risk of academic and social exclusion at school, impacting their wellbeing and school experience. Few studies have elicited the perspectives of deaf students in mainstream secondary schools in relation to both academic and social inclusion in England. Additionally, there is limited research conducted by deaf researchers in the field of educational psychology. As a deaf researcher myself, the aim of this research was to explore deaf students’ lived experiences of barriers and facilitators to academic and social inclusion in mainstream secondary schools in England. Whilst focusing on deaf students’ individual stories of their lived experiences the aim was to generate rich understandings and provide implications for educational psychologists, school staff and other professionals. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis semi-structured interviews were carried out with 5 deaf students in different mainstream secondary schools within Greater London. Five Group Experiential Themes were generated: effective support and strategies, experiences of difficulties and barriers, difficulties with difference and relatedness, building a positive deaf identity and self-concept, developing deaf awareness and advocacy through co-production. Self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) was a useful psychological construct to use as a theoretical lens to frame the facilitation of inclusion of deaf students at school. The findings illustrate that inclusive education for deaf students requires an emphasis on the access to appropriate co-produced support, in order to minimise barriers to academic and social inclusion. As well as the celebration of diversity and difference and supporting sense of belonging.