Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children

The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, at North Rocks, was the new name adopted in 1973 by the former Royal Institution for Deaf and Blind Children, which continued work started by the Deaf and Dumb Institution in Sydney in 1860. It was a school and disability institution, with residential facilities, including the Special School for Multi-Handicapped Blind Children. In 2014 the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children was a leading non-government provider of services to children with visual and auditory impairments, across a number of sites in Sydney.

The Deaf and Blind Children’s Centre was mentioned in a 1979 Commonwealth Government report called Why are they in children’s homes: report of the ACOSS children’s home intake survey.

In 2014 the Institution ran the Garfield Barwick School, Alice Betteridge School (formerly the Special School for Multi-Handicapped Children). Thomas Pattison School and preschools and colleges. It auspiced RIDBC Renwick, a research institute and college named after Sir Arthur Renwick, an early supporter of the Institution. Renwick was deeply involved in the Benevolent Society of New South Wales and the Royal Women’s Hospital, and was a founder of state care for children in New South Wales, and the first president of the State Children’s Relief Board.

In 2021 the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children rebranded, aligning all of its services under the name NextSense.