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

A Catholic School, in the tradition of Edmund Rice, St. Gabriel's School for Hearing Impaired Children exists to provide a caring and challenging Christian education for children with hearing impairment, to help them achieve their full potential through focusing 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, staffed by Irish Brothers from the School for the Deaf at St. Joseph's, Cabra, Ireland. 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:

 

 

 

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 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)
Br Julian McDonald cfc
Mr Garry Leary ALA, AFPA
Mrs Lynne Booth
Mrs Lynne Paul, Principal
Mr John Davies
Mr Tony Tenny
Br Moy Hitchen
Mrs Jan Tuohy

Patron

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. St. Gabriel's Patron, Paul Dyer, is the Artistic Director of The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and one of Australia's leading specialists in period performing styles. Paul founded the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in 1990 as a natural outcome of his long experience as a performer and teacher of Baroque and Classical music, and has been the Orchestra's Artistic Director since that time.

Paul has a busy career directing the Orchestra and as a harpsichord soloist and continuous player with the Sydney and Queensland symphony orchestras, Australia Ensemble, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Opera Australia. He has conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and following his debut with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000, Paul has been invited to appear as Guest Conductor in 2001 and 2002. In 2001 the Orchestra toured internationally for the first time with countertenor, Andreas Scholl.

As well as performing its busy concert calendar, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra has recorded seven compact-disc releases, with soloists including Yvonne Kenny, Graham Pushee, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Andreas Scholl and Sara Macliver. Several of these recordings have received awards, including the ABC Classic FM Best Recording of the Year (1995 with Graham Pushee) and the 24 Hours Magazine Listeners' Choice Award (1995 with Graham Pushee, and 1997 with Elizabeth Wallfisch). In 1998, Yvonne Kenny, Paul Dyer and the Orchestra won the Australian Recording Industry Association "ARIA" Award for Best Classical Recording. The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra Collection was released in December 1999 to celebrate the Orchestra's tenth anniversary.

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

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