Victorian College for the Deaf (School No. 3774; previously known as School for the Deaf and Dumb 1860-1866; Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution 1866-1949; Victorian School for Deaf Children 1949-1995)

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The Victorian College for the Deaf (School No. 3774) (VA 5311) provides programs for deaf and partially deaf students as well as for deaf students with disabilities and a limited number of hearing students who experience communication disorders. The co-educational school provides programs for both primary and secondary age students. 

The Victorian College for the Deaf opened as the School for the Deaf and Dumb in November 1860 and first operated from a brick house on Peel Street, Windsor in Melbourne. The College became a state school when the Education Department (VA 714) became involved in 1913. The College comprises a unique partnership between the government and the independent organisation, VSDC-Services for Deaf Children. A formal agreement exists between the Education Department, VSDC (Victorian School for Deaf Children)-Services for Deaf Children and the School Council.

The College was founded because of a letter which was published in the Melbourne Argus deploring the lack of facilities for educating the deaf in the Colony. The letter was written in February of 1859 by Mrs Sarah Lewis, the mother of a deaf child. The letter spurred a response from Sandhurst resident Mr. Frederick John Rose, a deaf man who had come from England in 1852 and had been educated at the Old Kent Road School for the Deaf in London. Mr Frederick J Rose opened the School for the Deaf and Dumb in 1860 and Mrs Lewis’ daughter, Lucy, became the first student. 

Enrolments increased rapidly, and the school moved in 1861 to the corner of Henry and Upton Streets, Windsor; in 1862 to Nelson Street, Windsor; and in 1864 to Leal House, Commercial Road, Prahran. It was in Nelson Street, the Committee was formed and applied to the government for land on which to build a permanent school for the deaf. The block was granted, an area of about six acres on the corner of St Kilda Road and High Streets, Prahran. The central edifice and southern wing were opened as the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution in 1866 to provide both classrooms and residential accommodation. The north wing of the building was completed in 1871 and a cottage hospital was erected on the site in 1887.  

The Committee took responsibility for the school in 1869. In 1913, the Education Department (VA 714) assumed responsibility for the education of deaf children and took on the employment of the teaching staff after an amendment to the Education Act of 1910 which contained clauses making the education of deaf children compulsory. The Board of Management retained the responsibility for the provision of education support services and the residential care of students. 

In 1926 the Committee offered the Education Department some of the St Kilda Road land for the construction of classrooms at the expense of the Department. The new building was completed in 1957 and opened in May of 1928 by then Director of Education, Mr J. McRae.

During the war years, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) occupied the St Kilda Road building and in 1942, the school moved to Marysville and were housed in Mary-Lyn. Classes resumed in school buildings from early 1944 and RAAF vacated later the same year. 

The corporate name was changed to Victorian School for Deaf Children in 1949 under the provisions of section 50 of the Hospitals and Charities Act 1948. 

In 1950 the Victorian School for Deaf Children built and operated the Princess Elizabeth Kindergarten for Deaf Children (School No. 4822) on Elgar Road, Burwood. Responsibility for staffing the kindergarten was transferred to the Education Department (VA 714) in 1958.  In 1976, the kindergarten was re-named the Princess Elizabeth Junior School for Deaf Children and was closed in 2002. 

Throughout the 1950s the Education Department sent several teachers to Manchester to study the latest method of teaching the deaf. In 1951 enrolments peaked, mainly due to the rubella epidemic some years previously. Temporary accommodation was provided in army huts until a second storey was erected on top of the west wing of the school in 1953.  

The W.D. Cook Pre-School Centre was opened and built by the Board of Management in 1957 on the grounds of the school. In 1971, the H.P. Green Wing was built by the Education Department (VA 714). 

In 1974 the school established two family group homes for deaf children in Stott Street, Box Hill. By the late 1970s students in residence from the school and kindergarten were accommodated in three on-campus family group homes. The school and kindergarten closed on weekends and any children not able to go home stayed at the Stott Street family group homes.

In 1983 a decision was made to phase out boarding school style accommodation in favour of family group homes. Homes were located in Atkinson Street, Oakleigh, Jasper Road and Shrewsbury Street, Bentleigh

In 1995, the Victorian School for Deaf Children became the Victorian College for the Deaf after the Department of Education (VA 3098) entered into an agreement with the Board to guarantee operation of the school for another thirty years. 

In 2024, the school is still in operation.