Two talented NextSense School students were honoured in this year’s Deaf Australia Auslan Day Video competition, with the judges awarding Alina and Chau first and second place in the 11-15 years division. Alina also took away first place in the Community Vote Award for her age group.

The competition is held in recognition of Auslan and celebrates the anniversary of the first publication of the Auslan dictionary on 13 April 1989. This is the second year that the competition has run.

Deaf Australia’s objectives for the competition include further promoting creativity and originality in the use of Auslan; fostering a sense of pride in Auslan among the Deaf community; and broadening awareness of Auslan.

Entrants were required to include the sign for ‘jaw-dropping’ and the ‘two’ or ‘hooked-two’ (such as ‘LOOK’ or ‘TRAIN’) handshape once or more in their video.

Alina and Chau were two of 12 NextSense School students who entered the competition and attend our Sign Bilingual Program. The competition was an opportunity for our NextSense teachers to improve students’ understanding of narrative and storyboarding and Alina, and Chau and their classmates worked hard to storyboard ideas, design plots, and polish their use of sophisticated structures in Auslan to ensure a compelling delivery.

In her video, Alina tells of being stuck on a train with her sister, only to come across a gorilla after managing to escape. Chau describes being in a museum elevator, where she finds a gold bar that transports her to mysterious places full of gold and gemstones.

Louise de Beuzeville, a teacher at our NextSense School Sign Bilingual Program, said the competition was a fantastic way to engage students in the creative process.

‘I am so proud of everyone who entered the competition this year. They were very excited to participate and worked extremely hard crafting their stories.’

The winning students took away cash prizes, in addition to an Auslan-related ‘jaw-drop’ t-shirt and an ‘I heart Auslan’ bumper sticker for Alina, as well as an ‘I heart Auslan’ tote bag for Chau.

NextSense School offers three specialist programs: a spoken language program, an English and Auslan Sign Bilingual Program and a Blind and Deafblind Program.