STUDENTS at St Laurence's Primary School experiencing episodes of glue ear and other conditions now have some of the newest technology to help them hear their teachers clearly.
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The Dubbo school recently welcomed the arrival of a classroom sound amplification system that puts children on an equal footing as they start to learn lessons for a lifetime.
The FrontRow Juno device is helping kindergarten students, and principal Pauline Walkom, who has been a teacher for more than 30 years, says its role is crucial.
"We have children coming to school from varying backgrounds and life experiences, none of these can be controlled but the hearing we can help with," Ms Walkom said.
"The new sound system we have in kinder is excellent for offering this help to all students and, as well as helping the students, it allows the teacher to rest their voice.
"It's so important that children learn from day one and are not disadvantaged."
Front Row NSW business manager Allyson Young recently visited the school to educate the kinder teacher about the use of the new sound system.
It has a sophisticated voice-activated lesson capture and sharing feature and only just arrived in Australia ready for school in term 1.
St Laurence's, like a number of other Dubbo schools, already had two earlier-model sound systems.
Ms Young also did a presentation to the school about purchasing FrontRow Ear Bus Passes, a fundraiser for the Hear Our Heart Ear Bus Project.
The community group aims to raise $360,000 to put a clinic on the road with an audiologist to detect and treat students plagued by otitis media, a common but serious problem, sometimes called glue ear.
