St. Gabriel's School for Hearing Impaired Children is a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition administered by the Christian Brothers through Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) - a National Governance Body for all Christian Brothers' Schools across Australia.

In NSW, St. Edmund's at Wahroonga and St. Gabriel's are administered by the Edmund Rice Special Education Services (ERSES) Board.

Vision

To be recognised for the excellence of our programs and the effectiveness of our advocacy in giving expression to the belief that "speech is the birthright of every child".

Mission

In the tradition of Edmund Rice, St Gabriel's exists to provide a caring and challenging Christian education for children with hearing impairment, to help them achieve their full potential through focussing on language development and intelligible speech acquired through listening.

History

St Gabriel's School for Hearing Impaired Children at Castle Hill, Sydney, Australia, originated in 1920 when the Catholic Bishops of Australia applied to the Superior General of the Christian Brothers in Ireland, to establish a school to meet the needs of Catholic deaf boys from the eastern seaboard of Australia, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand.

St Gabriel's School for Deaf Boys was opened as a residential school in July, 1922, when Brothers J O'Farrell and D Allen arrived from the Christian Brothers' School for Deaf at St Joseph's, Cabra, Ireland. St Gabriel's has always had a strong commitment to teaching the English language and initially the boys received instruction in Signed English as the mode of communication. In 1955, the oral method of communication was introduced. In 1973 the school became a co-educational day school.

St Gabriel's has always been at the forefront of education for children who are hearing impaired. Over the years, St Gabriel's has researched and introduced many innovative programs and techniques, to bring children who are deaf to intelligible spoken language and to provide them with improved educational opportunities. Some of these innovations have been:

• The introduction of the Cued Speech method (developed in the USA) which was used from 1968 until 1993, to enable children to lip read language accurately.

• The development of suitable course materials to allow registration of St Gabriel's as a School Certificate (Year 10) school in 1982.

• The development of a program to integrate students into mainstream schools was begun in 1976.

• The successful implementation of an oral/aural program, using the latest hearing aid and cochlear implant technology, which allows hearing impaired children to hear speech clearly.

“The Family Support Centre”, an Early Intervention Program for young children who have a hearing impairment was begun in 1974. In 1984 St Gabriel’s pioneered the Auditory-Verbal approach for teaching babies and infants who have a hearing impairment to develop intelligible spoken language through audition by using their hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. The “ Hear the Children” Auditory-Verbal Early Intervention Centre, based at Castle Hill, New South Wales provides a program which is so successful that, at school entry age, over 90% of the children are able to commence regular school alongside their hearing peers. In 1993 St. Gabriel’s opened an Auditory-Verbal Early Intervention Centre program in Brisbane. This centre merged with the Hear and Say centre in 2005. The St. Gabriel’s Curriculum was launched in 2001. This curriculum follows the normal developmental areas of Audition, Language, Speech and Cognition (birth to six years). Since the curriculum was launched it has been sold and used extensively throughout Australia and overseas. St. Gabriel’s published the St Gabriel’s Curriculum (second edition) in July 2005. This second edition of the curriculum now contains eight areas of development. The four new areas which have been added follow the normal developmental milestones for Social Interaction, Early Communication, Fine Motor Skills and Gross Motor Skills for children from birth to six years. St Gabriel’s and the Hear and Say Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, jointly developed a computer software program for writing individual education plans, IEP Goal Writer, which was presented at the Auditory-Verbal Conference held in Toronto in July 2005. The IEP Goal Writer is designed to be used in conjunction with the St Gabriel’s Curriculum (second edition)

Board of Directors

Mr Paul Waite AM, FCPA, FCIS (Chairman)
Mrs Kathy Freeman (Director)
Dr Cecile Ferguson
Mr Kim Morrissey
Mrs Maria Pearson
Mr Patrick Raper
Mr Tony Tenney
Br Michael Dredge.

Annual Report

click on the link to open the current Annual Report

2008 Annual Report 2007 Annual Report

Our Patron – Paul Dyer

The children, parents, staff and Board of St. Gabriel's were thrilled and honoured to welcome to the school Paul Dyer, Artistic Director of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, as our Patron in 2000.

Paul Dyer, is one of Australia's leading specialists in period performance styles. He founded the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in 1990 as a natural outcome of his experience as a performer and teacher of baroque and classical music, and has been the Orchestra's Artistic Director since that time.

Having completed postgraduate studies in solo performance with Bob van Asperen at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague, Paul performed with many major European orchestras and undertook ensemble direction and orchestral studies with Sigiswald Kuijken and Frans Brüggen.

As well as directing the Orchestra, Paul has a busy schedule appearing as a soloist, continuo player and conductor with many major ensembles, including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Orchestra, Australia Ensemble, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Opera Australia, Australian Youth Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Vancouver and recently the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London.

Paul has performed with many prominent soloists including Andreas Scholl, Cyndia Sieden, Eilzabeth Wallfisch, Andreas Staier, Marc Destrubé, Christoph Prégardien, Hidemi Suzuki, Manfredo Kraemer, Andrew Manze, Yvonne Kenny and Emma Kirkby. In 1998 he made his debut in Tokyo with countertenor Derek Lee Ragin, leading an ensemble of Brandenburg Orchestra soloists, and in August 2001 Paul toured the Orchestra to Europe with guest soloist Andreas Scholl, appearing in Vienna, France, Germany and London (Proms). As a recitalist, he has toured Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United States, playing in Carnegie Hall in New York.

In 1995 he received a Churchill Fellowship and he has won numerous awards for his CD recordings with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, including the 1998, 2001 and 2005 ARIA Awards for Best Classical Recording. In 2003 Paul was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for his services to Australian society and the advancement of music.

The St. Gabriel's choir was honoured to be asked to perform at the Orchestra's 2001 Christmas Concert Noël! Noël! at the City Recital Hall.