Transcript

Chris Rehn – Chief Executive

Welcome to our centre for innovation, situated at the gateway to Macquarie University and Macquarie Park. We’re positioned for the future, facing both externally to the community and internally to the University campus. The design reflects the different and varied relationships and partnerships we have now and will build into the future. Our building layout creates opportunities for interaction between our school teaching staff, clinicians and administration, as well as promoting connections with staff from other organizations through our public spaces, such as the cafe and business hub.

But our centre for innovation is much, much more than just a building. It's a home for greater collaboration with each other and the wider world. We’ll provide service delivery from our new centre and advance our thought-leadership in the hearing and vision sectors. We'll do this by harnessing the rich expertise across our 20 sites, from clinical leadership and standards, our research and educational strength, our remote service delivery innovation and our many pioneering approaches.

The great work you do with our clients and students, and the data and insight you generate, will drive even better outcomes for our clients. We're excited to be physically part of a vibrant campus community, joining partners like Cochlear, Macquarie University Hearing, Hearing Australia, The Australian Hearing Hub, Macquarie University Hospital and Health Science Centre, and the Education and Social Services faculties.

This will energise our thinking and open doors to new partnerships that will, in turn, give our people new opportunities and lead to better outcomes for people with hearing and vision loss.

Andrew Brady – Program & Procurement Manager

Our centre for innovation is custom designed to ensure our staff, clients and partners feel welcomed and included. As we tour through the centre, watch out for some of the custom-designed features that help explain sensory conditions, offer unique experiences and bring our brand to life. Our wide corridors enable guide dogs and wheelchairs to pass easily, while purposeful lighting makes it easier to use Auslan and lip read.

Touch was considered in every element of the design, from the battens cladding the walls to the textures of fabrics used. This allows people who are blind or have low vision to feel the beauty in the design, while also acting as wayfinding and orientation elements, with high contrast between the different surfaces to let you know when you have entered from one area to another.

The building has been designed according to best practice environmentally sustainable design principles in relation to energy, water, materials, ecology, emissions, transport, indoor environmental quality and innovation. We have sought to reduce environmental impacts every step of the way, through features like onsite rainwater tanks, water-efficient fixtures and fittings, a solar panel system and other features, non-toxic finishes and selective procurement for the materials we used in construction.

Sawza Lipscombe - Concierge

Our Concierge team is here to make sure that everyone who visits us gets where they need to go, understands who they need to see, and feels looked after in the process. We’re the first point of contact for clients visiting NextSense central, with admin and therapy staff handling each client's experience of the therapy services they receive. We can help with setting up rooms and organising catering for large events.

We deliver mail to staff and look after stationery and other office supplies.

These rooms are used for our conferences, training and large meetings such as our AGM, and are only available booking via our Concierge team. The rooms have capacity for 20 people seated per room, with adjustable walls that can be opened to expand the space to accommodate up to 144 people (seated). They have been designed with the highest possible acoustic standards for accessibility, with no reverberation or echo, and a stage and second camera for Auslan interpreters to be clearly visible.

Our hearing augmentation system assists people using hearing aids and is available in our meeting rooms that have amplified sound systems and in our classrooms. We've already welcomed some of our partners to use these spaces and we look forward to many more opportunities to engage with the broader community.

Paul Mendham – Head of Philanthropy

We have many spaces that encourage ideas-sharing, such as our business hub. This is a place to collaborate with external stakeholders and another informal location for teams or individuals to carry out their work.

Open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., our cafe is open to the public and is a great spot to enjoy coffee, breakfast or lunch. Caterez is our operator, and they also run cafes for large corporates such as Channel 9 and ResMed. The all-day menu features a wide range of snacks, meals and hot and cold drinks. NextSense staff enjoy a 30% discount on all food.

BYO keep cup to get 50c off your hot drink. Your welcome pack contains a voucher for a free tea or coffee, so you can check it out for yourself.

Leonie Quill – Head of Brand and Marketing

One of the most exciting features of the building is our showcase area, which offers unique experiences to our clients and visitors and brings our brand to life through innovation, content and interactive experiences. It also helps to explain sensory conditions which can be experienced and understood better by interacting with the various displays.

Touch is an important part of experiential learning and this tactile ring has a number of textures the children can explore while they're waiting in the reception area.

This light tunnel provides a range of sensory experiences for children, where the internal lights in the tunnel create patterns and shapes in our four brand colors to enable fun play while the little ones are crawling through the smooth tunnel. This inquiry column has already become a favourite with our young visitors. The aim of the game is to spin the outer ring to match the corresponding textures underneath.

The panels beneath the graphics are covered in a variety of different textiles that mimic the different animals featured in the cutouts.

Our cochlear touchtable is a wonderful and highly innovative way to learn and experience how a cochlear implant convert sound. When you press on the different touchpads, sounds and phrases are played and the coloured array in the middle of the table lights up in response to the sounds.

Located within the table itself is an actual cochlear device which draws how the array works, so that what you're seeing is exactly how a cochlear implant responds to sound. You can also have great fun talking into the microphone to see how the array responds to your voice in real time. As you move into the projection space of the immersive pod, you'll notice the ripples of white and colour following your movements.

The soft sound you can hear playing from above is actually the NextSense brand song.

Our multimedia wall honors our rich history, the complex network of people that make us a success, our partnerships and the generosity of our donors. The full production of video content runs for 45 minutes and tells two sets of stories which are broken down into themes. Its real purpose is to showcase who we are while visitors are walking through the foyer.

It's been designed so that people can take away short messages while watching beautiful imagery and effects. Audio descriptions are also available via the ear cups located next to each story.

This inquiry column provides perspectives and information on different eye conditions and the frequency and decibel levels of different everyday sounds. Check out these double-sided, interactive panels that reveal information underneath.

Nicola Erni – Administrative Assistant

Welcome to our invited space for clients waiting to see our Early Intervention keyworkers and therapy staff. The design of this area is deliberately non-clinical, with earthy accents and our bright brand elements providing a welcoming space during what can often be an uncertain time.

Nicole Smith – Director, Marketing and Communications

The multisensory wall features a variety of tactile and sensory activities designed for children to keep them busy while they're waiting for their appointments. Great consideration was given to the types of activities here and were specifically designed for children with hearing and vision loss. It was also developed to ease any pre-appointment anxiety and create a really welcoming space for our families.

The fun activities include tactile elements, high contrast colors, a textured quadrant, tracking and sorting activities, patterned light activities and this cute little buzzy bee, which is one of my favourites.

Lachlan Donlevy – Occupational Therapist

We have small and large therapy rooms which are used by our Early Intervention keyworkers and multidisciplinary team members (such as speech pathologists, physiotherapists and OTs) for 1:1 sessions and assessments. Our sensory room is a calm space designed to help children with their sensory regulation. Some rooms are optimised for telepractice with an enhanced AV setup.

Larger spaces cater for children who are working on gross motor goals and benefit from the opportunity to jump, swing and move their bodies.

Katie Huntsdale – Teacher Consultant

This fantastic space is used for Early Intervention groups and 1:1 sessions with clients requiring a larger space. It features a kitchenette, a large storeroom for equipment and spacious indoor and outdoor play areas. The courtyard is accessible and designed for use by clients with both vision and hearing loss. It can be used as a staff breakout area when available.

The steps and slope outside are used by our clients for physiotherapy intervention as well as orientation and mobility practice.

Cindy Lieu - Orthoptist

We're here at our low-vision clinic, where the versatile space caters to a wide range of client needs, ranging from those who require comprehensive, formal orthoptic assessments with a 6-metre testing distance, to functional and play-based assessments. Our orthoptists work with clients both here and in community settings to determine their functional vision and recommend aids, technology and environmental modifications that will support their literacy, learning and assist them to maximise their vision during everyday routines.

Rebecca Kim – Clinical Audiology Manager

Our diagnostic Audiology service offers comprehensive and accurate hearing testing for children from birth to 18 years. At NextSense, we specialise in testing children with additional disabilities and complex needs. The NextSense Cochlear Implant Program (CIP) delivers implantable hearing solutions for eligible adults and children of all ages. Post-surgery, audiologists provide ongoing care to maximise clients’ potential outcomes with reference to their personal hearing and speech and language goals.

Both services utilise our five specially fabricated testing booths. The walls of these sound booths contain acoustic dampening materials and electromagnetic shielding to create a noise-excluding test area.

Dannielle Carter-Brugman – People and Culture Coordinator

This is a space for all of our staff to come together to relax or collaborate, with a kitchen and lots of places to sit. We have a number of screens around the building like this one, where we share information and initiatives. You can also try your hand at pool or table tennis, or head outside to the courtyard where we have barbecues for staff to use.

Beth Ruschen – Therapy Resource Librarian

Our resource library is used by all Early Intervention keyworkers and therapists in the building. In the future, resources will be delivered to their therapy sessions and collected at the end to be returned to the resource library. The resource library houses everything from toys to puzzles, books and puppets, to standing frames, wheelchairs, sensory equipment and assessment resources. This is a huge work in progress as we catalogue thousands of resources that have been amalgamated from multiple buildings and libraries at North Rocks.

Ratu Cayuqueo - Concierge

Here are our carpool vehicles. The gate will automatically open when you leave the car park. To enter, you'll need to tap your access card.

Andrew Steen – Financial Controller

Neighbourhoods are the team home base. Each neighbourhood includes workstations with pedestal storage, common desks, a breakout hub, access to a print station, meeting rooms and locker storage.

Common desks are groupings of desks that anyone, from any neighbourhood, or any centre, can use. This promotes cross-team collaboration and means we use our space more efficiently as people come and go from the building at different times and on different days. Common desks differ from team to team – ask anyone in their neighbourhood to point out which ones are common desks if you’re not sure.

We have lockers for all staff available on a first-come-first-served basis. They're not assigned, so you can change your locker whenever you like. They operate like a gym locker, where you input your own pin.

Helen Simpson – Communications Specialist

Meeting rooms are for small or large team collaboration or extended discussions and conversations. They're located right across the building, bookable from Outlook and can support four, six, eight, 12 and 18 person meetings. All of our meeting rooms that have booking panels are able to be booked. Our focus rooms are places for quiet concentration, private or work calls or 1:1 internal meetings.

They're not bookable. Our video conferencing rooms can be used flexibly for telepractice, or equipment can be stored in the built-in joinery and the room used for face-to-face appointments. Bring your own laptop to plug in to the all-in-one monitor hub.

Trudy Smith – Continuing Professional Education Manager

Welcome to the NextSense Institute. We're training the next generation of teachers of the Deaf, specialist vision teachers and allied health professionals through the Master of Disability studies program with Macquarie University. We also carry out research and develop quality continuing professional education for education and health professionals who support people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or have low vision.

We've got a lovely space here, with a shared resource library and a dedicated recording room for podcasts, lectures and presentations. We invite you to come and talk to us about your professional learning needs.

Catherine Munkara-Kerr – Senior Graphic Designer

Special purpose rooms are areas designed for unique tasks like photography and videography and to support our Accessibility and Inclusion team. There are ten of these and they are clearly identifiable. This is the filming room, where we create video content. Today we're setting up the green screen for some Incredible Colleagues filming.

Nikhil D’Sousa – Multimedia Specialist

This is our 3D printing room. Here we create tactile resources to support clients and students who are blind or have low vision, such as 3D shapes, maps and other educational materials.

Sonali Marathe – Accessibility and Inclusion Manager

We have one secure transcription room, an embossing room and two binding rooms to create books, tactile diagrams and other resources for our clients who are blind or who have low vision. These rooms are for use by the Accessibility and Inclusion team. Access to these rooms is restricted when the team produces confidential materials for students undertaking NAPLAN and HSC trials.

Alex Xegas – End User Computing Engineer

And this is our staff kitchen area, one of many social hubs for staff to socialise, hold events, carry out informal collaboration and have downtime.

Antonella Dolores – Head of School

Welcome to NextSense School and Preschool. Our school offers a dynamic learning experience that cultivates resilience and exceptional growth. With a tailored approach designed to meet students’ individual needs, we specialise in sign bilingual, spoken language and deaf and deafblind programs for children kindergarten to year six. Our preschool provides children aged 3-5 and their families with an early learning community that values and promotes diverse cultures, languages and abilities.

We offer an inclusive program where children learn alongside their peers who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or have low vision. Let's go inside.

The offices along this hallway for our educational leaders, who come together to develop strategies, and to continue to work on research that underpins best practice in pedagogy.

The staff room is for all staff in the School and Preschool, so it provides a space to come together to eat lunch, have a cup of tea and a good chat. It's got a beautiful, natural outlook and we love to watch the ducks come past.

We've got two large therapy rooms and three amazing meeting rooms. The first one is a nice informal area where we can meet with families and their children and have conversations with them. We can also meet in the next room, which is a formal meeting room, and this larger one is for bigger family groups or staff meetings.

Susanne Barr – Child Care Worker

Welcome to our Preschool. We're really excited to show you around. Our children come in each morning excited to learn, play and explore our amazing space. When you first walk in, you'll see the philosophy of our preschool, and underneath photos of our friendly staff.

Erika Resavac – Head of Early Years

We offer a low 1:5 teacher to student ratio across three classrooms, representing our three education streams - spoken language, sign bilingual and blind/low vision. Each classroom hosts children who are deaf or hard of hearing, blind or have low vision, who learn alongside their hearing and sighted peers. The rooms are set up specifically to meet various sensory needs.

The first room hosts students who are blind or have low vision; the second room hosts students who are deaf; and the third room hosts students who are hard of hearing and may wear devices to assist them in accessing sound. Our inclusive and blended approach helps all the children develop crucial social skills and emotional skills that set them up for life.

The design of these rooms is very much intentional and optimised for learning. Every classroom is acoustically designed with soundproofing through double glazing and ceiling panels to reduce background noise for children with hearing loss.

These large blinds also allow us to control lighting and reduce glare for students with vision loss or who are using Auslan. The furniture has a natural wood feel with some colour to break it up. The classroom for our children who are blind or have low vision has greater colour contrast to help them differentiate between different materials.

An amazing feature of our School and Preschool is the emergency management system which uses sound, light and written messages to alert teachers and students in case of an emergency. Every space has an LED lighting strip and messages that come up on a plasma screen as well as through the speakers.

Our toilets are designed to ensure children have independence and learn about hygiene and self-care while being kept safe by our teachers. Our breakout rooms between the classrooms are used by therapists. Teachers and therapists work in tandem to help children put into practice what they have learned in the classroom.

Karishma Mohan – Lead Educator

This is our preschool playground. If you have a look up, you'll see the roof, which can open and close. It allows the natural light to come through, but also protects the children from the wind and the rain so the children can continue playing.

We have a lovely soft rubber floor, which means that children can run around as fast as they like and if they fall over, they're not going to get hurt. But also, it's great for the blind/low vision children so they can actually make a connection with their location and learn to navigate the environment.

Each day, teachers will set up a variety of different activities for the children to engage with their core skills, matching the children's needs.

The magnetic board allows the children to discover and play with water or sand or cars, and actually work out how things work, how they can start a process and how flow can happen.

All of our garden beds have safe plants so that children can touch and feel them.

Here is our sensory garden. We are so fortunate to have bush tucker. We have things like parsley, chives and rosemary, which are great for children to learn about gardens and how things grow, how to feed the plants and how to look after them. And they can enjoy their food as well.

Our climbing wall is a very popular part of the playground. The children can climb up the wall and then run through the gate and do laps around and around. It burns their energy as well, and encourages the children to learn about risky play and coordination of their physical movement.

Kristie Edwards - School Administration

Welcome to our School. We can't wait for you to see it in person. Our children arrive each morning looking forward to the day ahead with their teachers and classmates.

Rebekah Power – Leader Teacher – Leader of Pedagogy and Literacy

Our wonderful school hall has a wooden floor that sits atop a cement slab, so children who are deaf or hard of hearing can feel the vibrations through the floor. We also have a huge subwoofer to help the children get a feel for the beat.

Each of our classrooms is designed to have two teachers and up to ten children. Each room has a ProWise smartboard and whiteboard tabletops for interactive learning. The flexible breakout spaces like this one are used for focused learning therapy. We’re all about design thinking here, and our students were big decision makers when it came to choosing our classroom furniture.

Prior to the move, our students came together in a workshop to select the colour palette and type of furniture. These wobble chairs were a big hit.

Every student has their own locker with space for a hat and drink bottle outside their classroom.

This is our multipurpose room with an operable wall leading outside. This is where the children get their creative juices flowing with art, craft, music, drama and STEM activities. Here we are at our student kitchen, which is a wonderful place for learning life skills in an inclusive environment. There are height-adjustable benches and sinks so users of all heights and abilities can easily use the space and enjoy the facilities.

We've also got our canteen next to the student kitchen, serviced by the NextSense Cafe and fulfilling lunch orders.

Karen Pentland - Librarian

Our beautiful library is big enough for students to be able to break off into different areas for storytime sessions, reading or other activities. We have a huge range of resources and work closely with our Accessibility and Inclusion team to provide content in braille and large print. Like this display for National Simultaneous Storytime, which features the book in a range of formats and accompanying objects to really engage all our students.

Kellie Walker – Lead Teacher – Leader of Partnerships and Community

Have a look around. We're in the multisensory room. The kids really love coming in here to play. We share this room between Preschool and the School, and also a variety of different therapists will use this to help children develop and improve their skills, such as climbing, balancing and using the balls in the ball pit.

This little cocoon swing is a lovely, calm, relaxing place.

This is our quiet relaxation space. Very calming.

Ujala Maikoo - Teacher

Our classrooms on this side of the school open up onto this large deck, providing an open outdoor learning environment. This deck provides passive play opportunities, like construction and building areas for students. You will also notice our basketball and handball courts here. We continue our tradition of handball competitions which are very popular.

Rebekah Power – Leader Teacher – Leader of Pedagogy and Literacy

Our school playground is designed to be fun, safe and inclusive and suit our students’ different sensory needs. Like our preschool playground, there’s a rubber softball and roofing for all-weather play. You may notice that our swing and roundabout are low to the ground. This enables students equal access.

We also have a Liberty swing for our students who use wheelchairs. From our sandpit to our horns, tunnel and climbing ropes, there's lots to keep everyone busy.

This deck provides sensory experiences for students who are blind or have low vision, with bells embedded in it.

Chris Rehn – Chief Executive

Welcome to NextSense!