Supporting Students Who are Deaf /Hard of Hearing at Mount View Primary School 

Mount View Primary School is recognised for its high academic standards and for its willingness to support students with special needs in a culturally diverse environment.  The school actively fosters attitudes of acceptance, respect, co-operation and care for each other.  This includes providing specialised aural/oral support for students who have a hearing loss. 

Mount View’s classroom teachers work closely and collaboratively with teachers of the deaf every day to provide safe, encouraging, inclusive classroom environments for students with a hearing loss. Soundfield systems are provided in every learning space in the school. 

Mount View’s program for students who are deaf /hard of hearing was established in 1994 with two major objectives:   

• to enable our students to successfully integrate into a regular school by developing their spoken language skills to as high a level as possible believing that this is one of the keys to their future academic and social success.  

• It is also really important to support our students to develop really robust and resilient social and emotional wellbeing. For most students who are deaf/hard of hearing they are the only person in their family with a hearing loss, so having other students around them who also wear listening devices helps to normalise their listening difficulties and builds confidence and acceptance of their hearing loss.  

We have students who are deaf/hard of hearing in every year level from Prep to Year 6. They spend the majority of every school day learning with their hearing peers in classrooms.  In addition, they receive individualised educational programs from specialist teachers of the deaf and speech pathologists, working together to enhance their listening, speech and language skills as well as their personal and social capabilities. 

Program Overview: 

• All students have their hearing aids, speech processors and Roger Remote Microphone Systems checked every morning before school begins.   
• Students work in class for most of each school day, surrounded by the normal spoken language of their hearing peers.  Depending on need, they leave class to attend special support sessions, designed to address their individual educational and social/emotional needs and complement their regular classroom programs. 
• Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) are developed termly for every student who is deaf/hard of hearing in partnership with parents, class teacher, teacher of the deaf and speech pathologist. These are based on current speech, language and vocabulary assessments, literacy and numeracy needs. Importantly, we also closely monitor each student’s social and emotional wellbeing as we want to develop their personal and social capabilities too. These Programs are constantly monitored and reviewed to ensure that progress is being made. 
• Classroom teachers and teachers of the deaf have high expectations for our students which they demonstrate with constant encouragement to succeed. 
• Students use iPads, computers and associated programs and apps, interactive whiteboards/TVs. 
• We have a ‘No Captions No Play’ policy to ensure that every video clip watched in classrooms is correctly captioned and accessible to every student in the school. 
• Parental involvement and support are highly valued and actively encouraged.  Our Parent Group organises a number of social events and presentations every year. 
• Student Support Group(SSG) meetings are held every term with the parents, class teacher, teacher of the deaf and speech pathologist to discuss student achievements and areas for future growth. 
• A measure of the spirit of our program is shown by the willingness of past students to return to the school to mentor our students.   
• A mentoring program where our students from Years 4-6 spend time with our past students who are either in high school(Mini Mentors) or in tertiary education/work force(Mentors). This program culminates once a year in a highly successful Deaf Facility Camp. 
• A clinician from Hearing Australia visits school once a month. Students who have any issues with their ears, hearing aid moulds or hearing devices can be seen.  
• We work closely with Melbourne University, the Cochlear Implant Clinic and Australian Hearing to implement best practice in deaf education through active participation in clinical research, and educational/technological initiatives.  

 For more information, please see the attachment below:

Mount View Facility Supporting Students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing