LEARNING CENTRE Parents praise College’s learning support
Mary Burgess, whose two boys have been through the Learning Centre, is passionate about the impact it has had on their learning.
She says her two sons were severely dyslexic, but she believes they had the best educational opportunity they could possibly have had by coming to College, which has smaller classes and the tuition, help and guidance they have had from the Learning Centre. The communication the staff had with other class teachers really helped those teachers to understand each boy’s different learning needs, she says. Son Harry got Level 3 English endorsed with Merit, Level 2 endorsed with Merit and Excellence awards in other individual standards. “I can’t speak highly enough of the staff, as they recognise
both the need for help and the potential of each boy. They never give up,’’ she says. “They believe in the boys and give them what they need to be successful. They give them confidence, act as sounding boards, listen and give them strategies to work things out. By breaking everything down into bite-sized pieces, they make things easier for those who have different ways of learning.’’ Parent Rose Acland, whose two sons also have had tuition from the Learning Centre, says the centre is a fun, safe place slightly removed from the rest of the school where the teachers have a thorough understanding of the issues surrounding learning needs,
and know how to achieve the optimum from each boy they teach. “It has assisted hugely in giving our boys confidence in their abilities,’’ she says. “It has helped them understand and overcome the obstacles presented by a learning disability and to know that it is an issue they have to work with every day. But they find out it is not insurmountable and academic achievement and success are still possible. “Both our sons have performed beyond expectation in all external examinations and in the case of our elder son [the help] enabled him to perform well at university level. “The small group or option of a one-on-one helps the boys get the best out of each session, which are tailor-made to what the boys are working on in class and to the assessments coming up. There is good communication between the centre and the boy’s class teachers to aid this process,” she says. “The boys have really enjoyed the close, relaxed rapport they have had with their teacher and, in our case, we had the same teacher for both our boys. The centre understands each boy’s individual capabilities as well as respecting the aspirations of parents and boys alike to try and achieve the best academic outcome for school and into the future,’’ she says.
Catherine Bell, Lesley Anderson-McKenna, Helen Butterfield and Elizabeth Maddren.
Christ’s College Canterbury
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