About the Facility
The Forest Hill Deaf Facility provides secondary age students with quality education in an inclusive environment within a mainstream school. Students learn alongside their deaf, hearing impaired and hearing peers and participate in all aspects of a rich and active secondary school life. The Facility building is specifically designed with exceptional resources and provides a welcoming, supportive base for deaf and hearing impaired students.
Forest Hill College is a small to medium school with a focus on wellbeing and connectedness and follows a restorative practice approach. Students who are deaf or hearing impaired receive a personalised and nurturing education, providing for leadership opportunities (the past two years have seen a student from the Deaf Facility as Junior Sports Captain) and the option to be part of the whole school community. The size of the school allows for Facility students to form many friendships with their hearing peers being immersed in an integrated setting.
For students who identify as being part of the Deaf Community, our connectedness program of activities allows them to meet and share experiences with others with whom they can identify. Activities include Theatre of the Deaf, Deaf Secondary Schools Sports Days, Secondary Schools with Deaf Facilities camps and workshops through Deaf Sports Australia. We also have a deaf chaplain visit the Facility each Friday lunchtime providing welfare support for any students who wish to utilise this opportunity.
Entry to the Facility
Eligibility to the Facility is open to students who have a bilateral sensori neural moderate, severe or profound hearing loss and is determined by an Educational Needs Questionnaire. The student is then enrolled in the college and a program support group is convened to determine the student’s needs.
Support in Mainstream Classes
Students enrolled in the Deaf Facility (currently 20 Hearing impaired students) are students of Forest Hill College and participate in all school life activities and subjects. Students can be withdrawn from specific subjects such as LOTE and music for intensive literacy support or subject tuition as identified through their Student Support Group meetings. Participation and achievement in all subjects is closely monitored by a Teacher of the Deaf. Support within each class can be as minimal or intensive as each individual student requires.
Notetakers
Even students with exceptional listening ability can experience ‘holes’ in the information received in class for various reasons. Students watching interpreters may experience these holes when they avert their eyes to the board or their workbook. Notes taken in classes are readily available through the college Intranet for students to review.
Auslan Interpreters
Any class with a student who requires even supplementary information through Auslan has an interpreter. Interpreters are also available to students using their hearing to clarify or rephrase information to hearing impaired students.
Our Auslan Interpreters have been involved in a professional development/mentoring program over the past two years ensuring a high standard of practice in all classes.
Teachers of the Deaf
When not providing intensive support in the Facility, Teachers of the Deaf are often in mainstream classes such as English/ESL, working collaboratively with the subject teacher to provide optimal teaching instruction. Teachers of the Deaf at Forest Hill College are highly skilled in either Auslan and teaching English through Auslan or teaching English through language, listening and speech.
Technology
1:1 Laptop Program
The 1:1 laptop program at Forest Hill College enhances the learning process for all students and ‘bridges the gap’ experienced by those who are deaf or hearing impaired. The laptop program provides students with the following opportunities:- Live video streaming
- Note-taking files
- Literacy support
- Resources for scaffolding (ie. the internet, visual dictionaries, animated educational resources, etc.)
- Recording of tasks in Auslan
Interactive Whiteboards
Students who are Deaf or hearing impaired tend to be visual learners; interactive whiteboards provide a multi-modal approach to learning, including use of graphic representation, images and video.Assistive Listening Devices
Radio Frequency Units are made available and serviced through Australian Hearing for use in all classes. Hearing Loops are fitted in both the Forest Hill College and Gymnasium for use at assemblies and other school events to amplify sound and reduce background noise.
Captioning
DVDs with subtitles are used in class to enhance learning. Television programs are recorded with Closed Captioning enabled, displaying audio information visually.
Literacy Development
The Forest Hill College Deaf Facility makes achieving proficiency in reading and writing their highest priority in recognition that effective literacy is the key to opening the door to numerous opportunities during and post school. To achieve this aim, students are offered intensive, small group tuition following ground breaking programs and techniques specifically designed for Deaf and hearing impaired students.
WriteOnline
This software program guides students through word prediction, vocab building and writing analysis. Teachers of the Deaf work closely with students providing precise, targeted teaching using WriteOnline’s document analysis tool. The speech predictor is used for students who like to hear aloud what they have written using their aided hearing and also guides students who spell phonetically.
Fairview Learning Program
Fairview Learning is a new five-component reading program that provides direct access to Sign Language and English and opens a window for hearing and deaf students to begin to think and sign bilingually. Used widely throughout the U.S., we are the only Australian school to have adapted the program for use with our students who use Auslan at the Forest Hill Deaf Facility.
Oral/Aural Communication
Speech therapy is offered to students on a fortnightly basis with a trained Speech Pathologist.
Work is then followed up in between visits with the Teacher of the Deaf and at home.
Auslan LOTE at VCE
Forest Hill College provides students with the opportunity to study AUSLAN as a LOTE in Years 7, 9, 11 & 12. This highly successful subject is being offered to students who use AUSLAN as a first language and to those who have never signed previously. AUSLAN as a LOTE is offered to students at Forest Hill College as part of their timetable during the school day.
Family Support
Families are encouraged to be involved in their child’s education through participation in regular Program Support Group Meetings and are kept up to date through a Facility newsletter distributed each term. Support is also available to parents requiring assistance with:
- Transportation to school
- Accessing counselling for students
- Linking to other support services
ACE/VRS Kiosk
Forest Hill Deaf Facility has a dedicated "kiosk" for students who use Auslan to independently make and receive phone calls to and from teachers and other hearing people through video relay and the ACE telephone interpreter service.
Watch a short (very short!) video of two students from the Forest Hill Deaf Facility discussing the Australian Communication Exchange's Video Relay Service.
FHC Hill Deaf Facility students on YouTube
Further Information
For Further Information about Forest Hill College and the Deaf Facility, including eligibility criteria please contact:
Amanda Purcell
Deaf Facility Manager
Forest Hill College
Mahoneys Road
Burwood East 3151
Melway Reference: Map 62 C5
Phone: 9814 9444
Fax: 9887 8126
You can also read the latest news from the Deaf Facility in their regular newsletter, found on the Newsletters page.
