Catholic students front row seat to excellent education

“It is like every student is sitting in the front row!” L-R: Mr Greg O’Mullane, Director of Catholic Education; Ms Joanna Fitzgerald, Speech Pathologist and Mr Adriaan Du Plessis, Leader of Inclusion Support Services of the Catholic Education Office, Darwin launching FrontRow (Juno) in every Catholic School in the Northern Territory

With the start of the new school year only days away, every Catholic classroom in the Northern Territory will have FrontRow’s Juno, a state of the art sound field system that enables every student in the classroom to hear as if the teacher were standing right next to them. Catholic Education NT is the first of any state or territory to have this new technology across ALL their schools.

Adriann Du-Plessis said “This will especially help students with hearing loss and children having trouble paying attention”. Juno is a sound field system where the teacher uses a specialised microphone that transmits their voice evenly to every child in the classroom.

Students in conventional classrooms who are sitting up the back can miss out on up to 40% of what the teacher is saying. Research shows that the average student misses 25% of teaching instructions.

Joanna Fitzgerald said “Catholic schools should see a significant improvement in educational outcomes, especially in our remote classrooms where over 80% of all students have hearing difficulty, mainly due to Otitis Media (middle ear infection)”. Teachers no longer have to strain their voices to be heard. With Juno’s smart microphone for teachers and handheld mic for students, sound is properly amplified.

Greg O’Mullane the Director of Catholic Schools NT said “it’s a good use of resources to make sure all our students have the opportunity to receive the very best education. This ensures all classrooms in our 18 schools are at the cutting edge of education technology.