Auslan will make life easier for new student in 2024

The anticipated arrival of a deaf Kindergarten student in 2024 had prompted TPS to introduce Auslan into the school community this year in preparation for her arrival, deputy principal Bobbie Smyth said.

"Claire's only communication is Auslan, so when we knew she was coming we immediately went into planning how we could cater for her needs coming into our school," Ms Smyth said.

"Our journey with Auslan originated with concerns that Claire needed to be safe within the school and aware of what's going on around her, but she also needed to have a voice, to be heard, and to be accepted.

"I'm confident that by the time she arrives we will have 1000 students, teachers and support staff within the school able to use at least basic Auslan with Claire," she said.

Ms Smyth said TPS called on the services of teacher consultant Kim Curtis to lead Auslan lessons for a small group of students and staff, as she has worked with Claire since she was six months old, and with her older brother, Max, currently in Year 2 at TPS, since he was quite little.

"Our aim is to have a core group of Auslan students on-teaching within all of our classrooms, so we're seeing basic Auslan communication happening in our playground, our classrooms, during our assemblies, and during special events by the time Claire joins us next year," Ms Smyth said.

"Taking it one step further, we will be creating videos to assist with the learning and these will be on the school's ClassDojo app communication platform - so parents - can see what their children are doing and taking that knowledge home."

Ms Smyth said lesson groups with Ms Curtis were small - one of 8 and another of 7 - to ensue the signs are being taught correctly.

While the initiative has started small, Ms Smyth said Auslan was "spreading like wildfire" throughout the school and classrooms."

Such is the enthusiasm for the Auslan classes, Ms Smyth said she could have filled the spots in the classes "a hundred times over".

"Getting to know and understand the culture and the history of Auslan has been really exciting and enriching for our community, and it's been beautiful to see how our school community has really jumped on board with this."

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Claire has been for her Kindy 'Come and try' orientation days, assisted by a support teacher, Shona Charlesworth, and Ms Smyth said the results were "very positive".

"On the first day Claire couldn't believe the way we had students who could come to her and sign - she could communicate with other students and teachers, it was perfect, just beautiful," Ms Smyth said.

"By the second day Shona could step back because the other children were signing and Claire was so confident - she was even correcting some of their signs.

"One student got purple wrong and we know she went back to her class and let her colleagues know they had learned the incorrect sign for purple - she then showed them the correct hand gestures."

Ms Curtis said Claire had found it challenging to return to her preschool where she does not have the communication around her she experienced during the Kindy orientation days.

"It'd been an amazing thing for Claire - I think it's been a little bit mind blowing for her - because she's seeing people around her she's never met before who can sign back to her, and that has been really amazing."

The new NSW Auslan syllabus, which will be rolled out in 2026, has been developed in consultation with the deaf community, teachers, students and parents, a spokesperson for the Minister for Education said.

Auslan will be an optional course and decisions about teaching the syllabus will be made by schools and education sectors in consultation with the deaf community.

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