Auslan Report

Welcome to Auslan 2025! It is exciting to be commencing our second year of learning Auslan. Students began lessons in Week 2 of this term, starting with an introductory lesson.  The introductory lesson reintroduced Auslan by having students understand what Auslan stands for which is Australian Sign Language and how it is used by the Deaf Community in Australia. Students worked on not using voices and only focussing on just using hands which is how deaf people communicate in the community. The content was delivered by seeing many different people in the videos who are deaf and how they need to use Auslan to converse with others. The first signs that Grade Prep students practiced were “Hello” and “I’m good.” Grade 1-6 students practised greetings they learnt last year and revised the alphabet. Students also focused on which hand is their dominant and which hand they would use to point with. For example, a person who is right-handed will use their right hand to point to the left hand, especially when fingerspelling. 

Activities involved students tracing their hands on paper and labelling left and right including identifying and circling their dominant hand. This created a great visual reference for students so that they may remember which hand they will dominantly use to sign. Grade 1-6 students revised how to sign the alphabet and how to finger spell their names. 

As our students build their repertoire of words, engage in conversations and enjoy practising signs together as learnt by our students! Please scan the QR Code below which will provide you with YouTube videos to assist in practising together at home. 

Keep updated on learning Auslan each fortnight in our Partners in Learning Newsletter! 

Jess Pfister