A summaryPlanting a seed of 'I can do it!' - The Nuts and Bolts of Learn4Life
For parents who have chosen to home school their children, we become your partners in homeschooling and offer small groups mainly in the core academic subjects. Our different learning styles complement our different approaches to education.
Learning the basics - Maths and English - using a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach.
Reinforcing what has been learned, through practical, everyday topic work - teaching through a topic or theme, and where possible, in an interactive and holistic way that reflects the real world. Our experience shows that organising units around themes helps children to see how subjects are both independent and interdependent, enabling them to see ‘the big picture’ of their learning.
Encouraging interactive problem-solving and collaboration among small groups.
Providing opportunities for children to learn from children from other groups or with a different member of staff.
For those parents who have taken their children out of school, but would still like them to be part of an educational establishment (and thrive within that educational setting), we can provide you with a realistic alternative to traditional school-based learning. We work collaboratively with our parents. Our small groups make children feel more confident about contributing; no child ‘slips through the net’ or gets lost in the system, and all our learners benefit from a programme where they feel happy and confident; in a less formal setting. We try to connect abstract concepts to everyday events and make links between subject areas through a relaxed learning approach. Within each session, children complete several shorter activities.
Your child will love learning at Learn4Life. Learn4Life's curriculum is an inclusive teaching programme in which each subject or skill area is revisited in intervals at a more sophisticated level and where learning is consolidated before moving on; within an environment which promotes an integrated balance of artistic, practical and intellectual content. We feel that learning should be entrenched by revisiting skills learned in a spiral system of ever-growing sophistication. Based on a continuous spiral of reinforcement, where the same subject is approached in different ways, our learners are continually challenged with those struggling able to revisit areas of knowledge to gain a better understanding of the subject matter. We present the key skills of maths and language in an imaginative and creative manner with the aim of all our learners becoming conscious of being world citizens. We believe it is a unique style that combines personal and collaborative learning, practical hands-on activities, and the development of transferable skills. We aim to provide a grounding in Maths and English and in doing so, teach the 'whole child' - promoting academic and social development. Our sessions encourage pupils to embrace real-world challenges and to 'think outside of the box' - thinking creatively, experimenting with ideas rather than wait for instruction from a teacher, and to use collaboration and critical thinking to help solve tricky problems. We combine academic and life skills in an environment of fun and practical learning, as we believe that the principle of academic learning should be both enjoyable and personal. Our small-sized groups mean that your child will receive a more personalised education - we have time on our side! Currently, all lessons are tailored to different learning styles where all children feel valued and inspired as able learners, thinking for themselves and respecting others. There is integrated support for children with moderate needs. Please talk to us about your child's needs.
We will remain flexible in our styles of teaching and the curriculum offered in order to respond to the needs of the individual learners. We want our learners to enjoy and to be engaged with the process of learning. We hope that through different learning styles, our learners will relate what they learn to their own experience - so that what they learn becomes their own. All our lessons are child-centred and skills-focused. We believe that home-from-home schooling is very important and we always encourage strong links between Learn4Life and home.
Obviously, learners attending regularly will see greater benefit from this curriculum as well as our teaching methods. Why? Our approach involves our learners focusing on 'learning through the basics' through a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach (where necessary) and then extending this learning by reinforcement through practical, everyday topic work. Being flexible however, we are able to develop personalised programmes (which at first, may favour a particular learning style) for your child - once we have completed an initial informal assessment of them.
