Thomas Carr College (Tarneit) – St Mary’s College for the Deaf

Who are we?

Our Tarneit campus provides a warm and welcoming local school community where students experience a sense of belonging and can develop the confidence and communication success needed to participate in any school, work or social environment.

The Tarneit Campus is a co-educational and multicultural community boasting over 10 hectares of spacious grounds incorporating modern, state of the art facilities Wyndham Trade Training Centre, a purpose built for the delivery of Building and Construction courses and the Good Samaritan Campus where Year 7 Camp takes place and Year 9 students participate in a Country Experience as part of the iD9 program.

About our program

Our Tarneit Campus offers an individualised deaf and hard of hearing program delivered by Teachers of the Deaf who are passionately committed to student growth and learning in a setting that stimulates and encourages six years of secondary school excellence.

Students negotiate their course of studies to fully participate in the school curriculum as offered through Thomas Carr College while accessing St Mary’s College Expanded Learning Program (EXP).

Students also have the opportunity of accessing a wide range of subjects and senior courses of study. Our goal is to ensure that students reach their potential as strong, capable contributors following their dreams. Specific middle year’s programs and activities available at our Tarneit campus include Year 7 orientation camp, the year 8 Shine program and ID9 designed to engage Year 9 students and equip them with new skills that will help shape their adult selves.

Services we offer

St Mary’s employs Speech Pathologists who work on developing individual language and listening skills.

St Mary’s has adopted a positive approach to student wellbeing which underpins the spiritual, emotional, social, academic and physical growth of all students. Activities offered to strengthen wellbeing include St Mary’s College Positive behaviour for Learning (PBL) program and Student Wellbeing programs.

Our students feel a sense of belonging, connection and ownership at our Dandenong Campus. It’s a place where they care and respect each other while reaching their potential.

St Mary’s students undertake EXP, a subject taken as part of each student’s timetable of year level subjects. The learning areas taught by the Teacher of the Deaf are decided with students and parents and based on the Expanded Core Curriculum for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students, designed to support students in accessing and experiencing success in their core subjects. Areas taught may include literacy, expressive and receptive language, audition, speech or social-emotional learning. This subject offering is flexible and can vary from student to student and year to year, depending on subjects and wellbeing needs.

Program support group (PSG/SSG) meetings are held with parents each term as a way of monitoring student progress, receiving feedback and planning for future teaching and learning. In between meetings, we maintain regular phone and email contact with parents.

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