Auslan News

Errol St Campus

From Caen , Senior school Auslan teacher

We have had such a wonderful few weeks in Auslan! Students have been showing fantastic enthusiasm and focus during our lessons. It’s been exciting to see them not only learning new signs but also using them confidently with their classmates and teachers. The energy in the classroom has been positive, collaborative, and creative.  

Our focus has been on “Clothes”. Students have learned how to sign a wide variety of clothing items, from everyday wear like pants and shoes to seasonal items like scarves, coats, and hats. We have spent time ensuring students are accurate with Handshape, Orientation, Location, and Movement (HOLM). Through role-play activities, students acted out real-life situations, such as “shopping for clothes” or “getting ready for school,” which helped them practise both vocabulary and grammar in an authentic way. A key highlight was watching students begin to use space effectively in their signing – positioning people, objects, and actions around them to make their conversations richer and easier to follow.

Learning Auslan is not just about memorising signs. It is about developing visual communication skills, understanding Deaf culture, and building empathy for different ways people communicate. These lessons are helping students grow their focus, memory skills, and ability to interpret visual cues – all skills that are valuable in many areas of life.

Lastly, we are excited to introduce our Auslan Student of the Week award starting this week. This award will celebrate students who demonstrate exceptional effort, creativity, or improvement in their Auslan learning. It’s a great way to acknowledge their hard work and encourage continued engagement. 

How You Can Support at Home?

It has been so rewarding to see so many students start to use Auslan outside of our dedicated lesson time. Some have signed with friends in the playground, while others have used signs with their classroom teachers to answer questions or make requests. This integration shows they are seeing Auslan as a living, useful language and not just something learned in isolation.

To help reinforce learning, it would be fantastic if students could practise their signs at home. Even just a few minutes of practice a day can help them retain vocabulary and improve fluency. We have attached a clothing signs poster to this newsletter, which you can display somewhere at home.

Tip: Try using it during everyday routines. For example, while getting dressed in the morning, you could ask your child to sign the clothing items they are wearing along with its colour!

Tip #2: Encourage them to teach you a few signs! Our students love showing off their skills!