Deaf Education Centres In New Zealand there are two Deaf Education Centres providing services for students who are Deaf or hard of hearing. They provide preschool services and schooling for day students (including satellite classes within mainstream schools), and for those staying within their own residential facilities. They provide RTD"S. Information and resources are available for sign language and spoken language, literacy, Deaf studies and other information is available on their websites. Courses are provided for classroom teachers and families.
Kelston Deaf Education Centre, based in Auckland, provides services to those in the northern part of the North Island.
Van Asch Deaf Education Centre, based in Christchurch, provides services to the remaining parts of the North Island and the whole of the South Island.
Resource Teachers of the Deaf RTD's or Resource Teachers of the Deaf provide regional mainstream and resource services to Deaf or hard of Hearing students in mainstream schooling. They are specialists teachers who assess a child's needs in the classroom, or in a one on one setting. They team up with other specialists to help teachers adapt their teaching to suit the child's needs. They work with teachers and families to set achievement goals and create learning plans for children and students who are deaf or hard of hearing. RTDs work through the Deaf Education Centres.
The Combined Board of Trustees of van Asch Deaf Education
Van Asch Deaf Education Centre and Kelston Deaf Education Centre is composed of six parent trustees, two student trustees and the two Principals. Up to four additional trustees may be co-opted to ensure that the views of the deaf community and the views of Maori are represented on the board.
Purpose The Deaf Education Centres working together with families and the deaf community provide equitable and coordinated deaf education, so that deaf and hearing impaired students:
Contribute meaningfully to their communities
Are socially well integrated:; and
Are able to determine their future and fulfill their dreams
Board Vision (for the services)
Accountable for delivering high quality service equitably across diverse needs;
Personalised learning delivered by skilled and caring people;
High expectations for achievement both academically and socially;
Progressive and forward looking.
Mission The Combined Board of van Asch Deaf Education Centre and Kelston Deaf Education Centre acknowledges it's legal obligations and it's duty of trust care towards deaf students and their families.
The van Asch Deaf Education Centre Mission states that:
The purpose of van Asch Deaf Education Centre is to provide high quality educational programmes and special related services which meet the needs of deaf and hearing-impaired students and their families and communities.
Combined Board of Trustees Parent Elections 2016
During May 2016, nominations will be invited for the election of 6 new parent representatives to the Board to find out more info download this brochure
Advisors on Deaf Children AoDCs work alongside children identified as deaf and hard of hearing and their families and whānau from birth to year 3 at school. AoDC provide advice and guidance on communication and language development. They also help provide resources and programmes required to meet the developmental and educational needs of the child and their family and whānau through early childhood and into school. AoDCs work collaboratively with other service providers including the Deaf Education Centres, the Northern Cochlear Implant programme and the Southern Cochlear Implant programme, and Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand, among others.
The purpose of the NZSL@School is to support schools create learning environments so that deaf children, whose primary face to face language is New Zealand Sign Language achieve educationally at the same level as their hearing peers and are confident and secure in who they are as a deaf person. As a result, NZSL@School provides a range of support to schools, deaf students and parents/whānau, in addition to any other special education support deaf students receive, to help schools understand and provide learning environments that meet the learning, communication and cultural needs of deaf students who use NZSL.
The information currently includes: ● The NZSL@School Guidelines for Schools and Educationalists
● The NZSL@School Guidelines process flowchart. ●The NZSL@School Application Form a form to apply to access NZSL@School (to be completed by schools) ●The NZSL@School Resourcing Form (and example) – a form to access NZSL@School support for students on NZSL@School. (Please download and save this form first, before completing.) ● NZSL@School Schools FAQ Information a brief overview of NZSL@School for schools which Deaf Education professionals are able to provide to schools ● NZSL@School Information for Parents