We wanted to write you this letter to express our appreciation to you and your staff for the help and support you have given our son this year, the benefits of which cannot be understated.
The International Centre for Excellence – your name says it all! Once you make the decision to bring your child along you soon discover what a wonderful thing you have just done for them.
The Centre is holistic, vibrant and an incredibly unique learning environment where each child has their individual learning objectives met in a setting that encourages creative thinking, individual self esteem, cooperation and productivity. Your hands-on learning approach is rarely seen in either the public or private school systems and should be applauded for its successes.
Your staff are positive, talented, passionate and amazing people who work hard to build a strong rapport and trust with the children who attend. Each child is immediately put at ease from the moment they walk through the door.
To us, it’s a lot like the premise of putting hidden veggies in meals, the kids don’t realise how much they are actually learning as they are having way too much fun to notice!
Your uncanny ability to relate to children gives you a unique perspective of each child and allows you to discover their often overlooked talents and skills. In the same way that you do this you also build up each child’s self esteem to a level where they are able to realise and utilise their strengths to overcome their “weaker” areas of learning. This also assists them in collaborating and interacting with other children as often these skills can deteriorate with learning difficulties which can negatively impact on the child’s confidence.
Our son loves coming to ICE each week to find out what’s new! It makes tutoring so much easier when your child is wanting to come and learn, rather than being coerced, and for this we cannot thank you and the staff there enough.
I received this testimonial in the mail yesterday and felt so happy and blessed to know that people really GET what we try to do! Whenever I have a bad day I will re-read this!
Dear Victoria
We wanted to write you this letter to express our appreciation to you and your staff for the help and support you have given our son this year, the benefits of which cannot be understated.
The International Centre for Excellence – your name says it all! Once you make the decision to bring your child along you soon discover what
wonderful thing you have just done for them.
The Centre is holistic, vibrant and an incredibly unique learning environment where each child has their individual learning objectives met in a setting that encourages creative thinking, individual self esteem, cooperation and productivity. Your hands-on learning approach is rarely seen in either the public or private school systems and should be applauded for its successes.
Your staff are positive, talented, passionate and amazing people who work hard to build a strong rapport and trust with the children who attend. Each child is immediately put at ease from the moment they walk through the door.
To us, it’s a lot like the premise of putting hidden veggies in meals, the kids don’t realise how much they are actually learning as they are having way too much fun to notice!
Your uncanny ability to relate to children gives you a unique perspective of each child and allows you to discover their often overlooked talents and skills. In the same way that you do this you also build up each child’s self esteem to a level where they are able to realise and utilise their strengths to overcome their “weaker” areas of learning. This also assists them in collaborating and interacting with other children as often these skills can deteriorate with learning difficulties which can negatively impact on the child’s confidence.
Our son loves coming to ICE each week to find out what’s new! It makes tutoring so much easier when your child is wanting to come and learn, rather than being coerced, and for this we cannot thank you and the staff there enough.
Lately I have been in many schools to train teachers how to use JOLLY PHONICS and JOLLY GRAMMAR.
Yes, I know there are unkind, harsh teachers who may lack some skills.
There are disinterested teachers and some who simply picked the wrong profession. This occurs in ALL professions. There are unkind, disinterested and inept doctors, lawyers, accountants, politicians etc.
There always will be.
Teachers are particularly on public show and many people harbor thoughts that anyone who has been to school can teach. WRONG!
Just try to teach a group of youngsters with varied needs, learning styles and often with insufficient time, resources and with the huge demands placed on teachers to interpret the curriculum, continuously assess children and deal with many difficult parents.
Our teachers are well trained, extremely caring about the needs of the children in their care and often put their personal needs aside as they give up night after night to plan and mark. It is pretty much impossible to get all these tasks done in a school day, not to mention the research of new methods and searching for better methods to ensure ALL children are learning.
Yesterday I sat outside a kindergarten class waiting for the children to be dismissed as I was using that classroom for training. I was with a group of parents and grandparents who were watching their beloved children through the windows. I didn’t watch the kids- I watched the teacher.
I watched as she used a puppet to engage and enthuse the children, read a story with a wonderfully expressive voice and then lead the children to reflect about the morning’s learning. They discussed all their observations about the snails they were studying and were encouraged to postulate further questions to consider tomorrow.
Then these happy, excited kindergarten children spilled out of the class, many of them confidently saying “Hi!” to the stranger sitting there. (Me!)
Then after at least 4 hours of prep and teaching, 15 teachers sat and listened to me on tiny chairs, at tiny tables for another 3 hours as they ate their sandwiches. (No corporate training lunches for them!)
Without any break they encouraged me to begin, listened intently, asked many probing questions and examined ways they could use these programs to further improve literacy for their children. After 3 hours of presenting, I was exhausted but no- these amazing teachers wanted to ask questions, help me pack up and arrange to come to my center and borrow some teaching materials.
This is a perfectly normal scenario. I often see teachers after exhausting days of teaching and no breaks as they often have playground duty and are faced with long prep hours at night.
They deserve better. They deserve our respect and admiration as they get on with their job of educating and transforming the future by their daily work.
Cut them some slack and forgive their occasional mistakes and grumpiness. Most of them LOVE your children and would do anything to help their young charges to reach for the stars.
The recent media attention on tuition for selective schools has once again put tuition companies under scrutiny.
Really they are just responding to community demands and I don’t blame them BUT……..
For a long time I have felt increasingly concerned about the incredible pressure put on students of all ages.
We seem to back in the HARD TIMES era of Charles Dickens with ramming facts into students’ heads.
“NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!”
Victoria Carlton Programs also provide tuition but we are opposed to “hot-house” methods.
We help kids to improve academic skills by leading them and engaging them so they start to LOVE learning. We stimulate their minds and increase their curiosity while building self-discipline and goal setting skills.
Yes- I know that we have chosen the least lucrative pathway but our goal with Victoria Carlton Programs has always been to nurture children and build on strengths and help them improve weak areas through effective, well researched and creative teaching methods.
I have noticed increasing numbers of our parents are starting to rise up and express very strong opinions about wanting their kids to love learning. They want their kids to be kids and this will not happen unless some sanity prevails.
The world is NOT just about competition. There is so much more to education than becoming no 1.
We have a broad, rich and diverse curriculum in Australia with plenty of opportunities to deepen or modify areas to suit gifted students or those at risk.
Sure- having an effective guide or tutor might help children improve academic skills or gain entry to schools of choice- but let’s make sure our kids do not lose the ability to think, be creative and develop their emotional intelligence within this increasingly competitive education system!
Read this article for a balance treatment of this topic.
Working with children is both a privilege and a great blessing. They transform our understanding of the world and help us to become more real!
Of course the process of becoming “REAL” can be both joyful and painful!
This is my favourite excerpt about becoming REAL! (From the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.)
The toys are chatting one day……….
“Real isn’t how you are made said the skin horse. It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real”
“Does it hurt? asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes”, said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand”.
Teachers and parents understand this. The whole process of becoming real IS painful and parenting and teaching will leave you raw, hurting, worn out but also (occasionally) incredibly grateful and joyful.
Kids always pick out the non-real teachers and make their life hell. They have an uncanny knack of doing this but also change quickly when a teacher shows their REAL side.
They read faces
Listen to voices
Look for congruence of actions and speech and if they don’t see it will not believe you!
They are wonderfully forgiving but will not EVER wholly their best to those who are not real.
Kids want us to become authentic and to share who we are and to really BE there for them.
Children ALWAYS know the difference between real/not real!
Teachers at the Victoria Carlton Centre for Excellence in Bayswater have instituted several changes to their writing program with remarkable results.
MIND JOURNEYS
MAD WRITING
MIND JOURNEYS is a method of teaching that increases imaginative thinking and ability to create “mind-movies” as you write.
Victoria commented, “It is not uncommon for children to go from 2 lines to a whole page in 1 or 2 lessons! It is like a hole in the mind is opened and ideas pour out onto the paper!”
MAD WRITING stands for Modelled Awesome Daily writing and children watch a brief modelled session by trained teachers and then write on specific engaging topics. The results are immediate as children are given complete models, support and immediate feedback. Even their most reluctant writers will try with this method!
Training for these two methods is included in the Professional Development course, GROWING WRITERS available to educators.
Interested parents or teachers can contact VICTORIA CARLTON PROGRAMS on 92714200 for more information.
The recent media attention on tuition for selective schools has once again put tuition companies under scrutiny.
Really they are just responding to community demands and I don’t blame them BUT……..
For a long time I have felt increasingly concerned about the incredible pressure put on students of all ages.
We seem to back in the HARD TIMES era of Charles Dickens with ramming facts into students’ heads.
“NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!”
Victoria Carlton Programs also provide tuition but we are opposed to “hot-house” methods.
We help kids to improve academic skills by leading them and engaging them so they start to LOVE learning. We stimulate their minds and increase their curiosity while building self-discipline and goal setting skills.
Yes- I know that we have chosen the least lucrative pathway but our goal with Victoria Carlton Programs has always been to nurture children and build on strengths and help them improve weak areas through effective, well researched and creative teaching methods.
I have noticed increasing numbers of our parents are starting to rise up and express very strong opinions about wanting their kids to love learning. They want their kids to be kids and this will not happen unless some sanity prevails.
The world is NOT just about competition. There is so much more to education than becoming no 1.
We have a broad, rich and diverse curriculum in Australia with plenty of opportunities to deepen or modify areas to suit gifted students or those at risk.
Sure- having an effective guide or tutor might help children improve academic skills or gain entry to schools of choice- but let’s make sure our kids do not lose the ability to think, be creative and develop their emotional intelligence within this increasingly competitive education system!
Read this article for a balance treatment of this topic.
The media have raised issues about community concerns that perhaps children are not coping with formal work at such an early age. I think it is more likely that the formal METHODS are not working.
Young children LOVE to learn and are ready to learn some early literacy and numeracy concepts. The problems start when we think they ALL must be ready at the SAME time and will learn at the same pace!
Young children learn best with a multisensory approach,
rich in creative experiences such as art, music and drama.
Most are not going to enjoy or benefit from working from workbooks and worksheets.
There are so many ways to teach literacy with a rich, “hands-on” approach. When workbooks and worksheets are constantly used, the power of the curriculum is being passed to the work-sheet writers and sellers.
Early childhood experts have raised many legitimate concerns over the last few years but still we can see very young children trying hard to make their letters or numbers on a page when they could (more easily) be writing them in sand pits, on huge whiteboards, or even large sheets of paper with crayons.
We have become a worksheet obsessed educational community and parents are picking up on this and keeping children back until their children can cope with this approach.
The answer is simple. Just change the methods of teaching. Pre-school and early childhood teachers are well-aware of the best ways to teach. Let them get on with it rather than insisting young children should learn like older children. Most of them simply don’t have the fine-motor skills or concentration to do this. By using age-appropriate methods the children will enjoy the learning process and probably learn more! Very definitely they won’t start to think of themselves as failures at 3 and 4 years of age!
For many years we restricted children’s access to early learning opportunities. Research has proven us wrong. However, we must choose the correct tools to enable all youngsters to attain success.
It’s sad to see parents holding children back from what should be one of the most exciting and enjoyable phases of their lives!
Read these well researched articles for more information and ideas for appropriate teaching strategies for young children.
It is vital that we stop using inappropriate teaching strategies with young children and provide them with rich, multisensory and stimulating learning environments!
The holidays are fast approaching and the kids are hanging out for some freedom!
We ALL need rest and recreation and often just a change of routine, place, pace will make a massive difference!
We always notice how fresh children appear to be during our holiday learning sessions and at the beginning of term. Even a few days without school routine can work wonders!
These holidays represent a little more of a challenge for parents as the weather is colder, wetter and children are often cooped up inside.
Rather than cave in and allow wall to wall TV, Minecraft and such like- how about trying a few of these?
(We know that unlimited screen-time will not benefit children and may do real harm.)
Note: Even though most Aussie kids don’t see much snow- they WANT to! To that end, some of these suggestions include fake snow and so forth!
20 Things to do in the Winter holidays
Make snow- flakes- these are sufficiently detailed to help concentration and maths skills to develop. When finished paint with saturated solution with water and Epsom salt to add a glittery surface and hang up!
Plant a winter garden- give your kids a small plot, some seeds and seedlings and ask them to dig, plant, water and fertilise. Children LOVE to do this and note progress of THEIR plants. Hopefully we will have enough dry spells for this to happen. Otherwise some indoor herb plantings will help!
• Make hot chocolate with marshmallows to enjoy just before bedtime with some great stories.
• Have a PJ day where EVERYONE stays in PJS all day and draws, reads, watches TV together and makes wintery food such as hot chips and fresh bread. (Forget your diet for just one day.)
Reading is a huge pleasure for many of us and we hope children will also experience this wonderful opening to many worlds, knowledge and ideas.
I notice that most teachers attending my literacy courses tend to read more non-fiction than fiction and report lack of time to be a major reason for this.
Actually I wonder if this is really true. I would bet even money that most of us spend more and more time on Pinterest, Facebook, Netflix etc and that reading is not always the chosen “go-to” for spare moments. I also wonder if perhaps there is a sense of guilt associated with reading fiction and “escaping”.
In order to be a model for children, parents and teachers need to read and be seen to read for pleasure. They need to see us reading non-fiction AND fiction. They need to know that reading is an enjoyable and popular pastime and to see it is valued by the people they love the most.
Reading, and in particular reading fiction, opens up other rooms in our minds. It gives us opportunities to develop empathy for characters and to explore different settings, plots, ideas and scenarios. Reading fiction helps us to grow and problem solve. It stimulates our brains and helps our EQ to grow.
Reading fiction does the same for children. There are so many wonderful picture books and novels written for children of all ages.
It is worth spending time to find out about great authors and to help children discover books they can really engage with. Our libraries are a fantastic source of FREE books- both
paper and digital, and there are endless lists of children’s literature to explore.
This colder weather is perfect for snuggling up with a book, reading to your children and also establishing a family reading time each evening.
Simple switch off the TV and enjoy 20-30 mins where EVERYONE reads. Play quiet music in the background and at the end encourage some discussion but DON’T make your children talk about their books if they prefer not to. Don’t turn a pleasurable exercise into a chore!
Happy WINTER reading. I’m off to curl up with a blanket, book and hot chocolate!
