WITH four to five children in every classroom having a learning difficulty or disability and acquiring knowledge at half the rate of their peers, Canterbury League, Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL and Campsie RSL have partnered with Learning Links to help empower students and upskill teachers from 15 local schools.
“Clubs have a close relationship with the local schools that use club facilities for fundraising events and presentation days,” Canterbury Hurlstone Park Community Manager Paul Kougias said.
“Because of this, we’ve known for some time that many schools don’t have the resources for specialist education programs, which is why these clubs have joined together to try and combat this issue.”
The Reading for Life program was one of the weekly interventions that 50 students were able to take part in.
Pre and post-testing showed that over 15 weeks, students achieved average learning gains of 7.4-months for their sight word understanding, 4.4-months for reading accuracy and 6.6-months for reading comprehension.
Similar results were seen in Learning Links’ Counting for Life program and maths-focused educational support group sessions, with students building confidence and making notable average learning gains of up to eight months.
Learning Links CEO Birgitte Maibom said: “There are many children in the Canterbury-Bankstown community at risk of falling behind at school and facing a lifetime of disadvantage. The generous and ongoing support of these four clubs has enabled Learning Links to address this issue and provide the interventions to help change the trajectory of their future.”
Thanks to the partnership, Learning Links has also been able to offer professional development opportunities for over 80 teachers to improve knowledge and support students with learning difficulties.