About Us - overview

Van Asch Deaf Education Centre was opened in March 1880 and was the first fully government funded school for the deaf in the world. Situated in the valley of the seaside suburb of Sumner, van Asch is 15 kilometres from the centre of Christchurch, New Zealand. Originally called Sumner School for the Deaf it was renamed in 1995 after the first Principal Gerrit van Asch.

The Centre works in partnership with parents, the Deaf Community, teachers and other professionals supporting deaf and hearing-impaired students on site and in the Central and Southern Regions of New Zealand.

Deaf and hearing-impaired preschoolers whose families live in Christchurch are enrolled in the Centre's Early Intervention programme.

The base school at van Asch offers primary, middle and senior high school programmes for both day and residential students.

The Centre employs itinerant Resource Teachers of the Deaf in the central and southern regions of New Zealand to provide services for deaf and hearing-impaired students in mainstream settings. Part-time hours are provided for deaf and hearing-impaired students in remote areas who are unable to access itinerant Resource Teachers of the Deaf services.

The Centre also employs a number of specialist resource staff. The Specialist Resource Team provides those professionals working with deaf and hearing-impaired students in regional settings with support in literacy, speech-language, visual communication, New Zealand Sign Language and deaf studies.

An educational audiologist based at the Centre supports audiologists in the central and southern region in paediatric assessment and hearing aid fitting. The Centre also provides a hearing aid repair service for students enrolled in an educational setting and under 21 years of age.



The Centre is under contract to the Southern Hearing Charitable Trust to provide a Cochlear Implant candidacy assessment and device programming service. The programme's Audiologist/Manager works with a Group Special Education habilitationist based at the Centre to provide the service for children in the South Island. For more information about the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme visit www.scip.org.nz

The Specialist Resource Team and the Centre's educational audiologist provides families in regional settings with the opportunity to attend four-day preschool residential courses. Ten courses are held each year catering for approximately thirty families. The Specialist Resource Team and the Centre's educational audiologist also provide families in regional settings with the opportunity to attend a one to three-day assessment visit.

The library and media centre provide families and those professionals working with deaf and hearing-impaired students in regional settings with a range of book and non-book resources.

For nearly 100 years van Asch promoted an oral mode of communication. In the late 1970's Signed English was introduced. In the early 1990's the first deaf bilingual programmes were established. The Centre continues to promote a philosophy that encourages both students and their families to make informed choices about communication methodology. Currently the base school provides deaf bilingual programmes, oral programmes and sign supported English programmes. Opportunities are provided for deaf and hearing-impaired students in mainstream settings to learn about Deaf Culture and New Zealand Sign Language through the Centre's Deaf Studies Curriculum.

For more information about the Centre and its services, please contact:
van Asch Deaf Education Centre

Truro Street,

Sumner

Christchurch 8081

New Zealand

TTY/Voice: 03 326 6009

Fax: 03 326 5346

Email: info@vanasch.school.nz