One-to-One Teaching

Each program is specially designed for the individual student and taught one-to-one by our dedicated experienced teachers, often operating in teams to provide the student with a rich learning experience.  The one-to-one format gives the student the full attention of our experienced teachers to ensure rapid, effective and efficient improvement of the problems identified in the assessment.

Two models are used in providing one-to-one teaching at the Vancouver learning Centre.  Students who are in school attend 2-6 hours per week, along with their regular schooling. For those who are not in school the BOOST (Buying Out Of School Temporarily) program (which includes 10 hours of one-to-one instruction and 15 hours of supervised learning per week) is provided for a fulltime educational year.  Students have to be 12 years old and able to learn independently for some of the time under supervision to be eligible for the BOOST program.

Thus while the Vancouver Learning Centre is a learning centre and not a formal school, some students spend their full school day on site, where they have a very rich and intense learning experience as a transition to the next stage of their learning journey.  Most students take the part time program (2-6 hours per week).

To provide convenient learning schedules for all of our students in their one-to-one teaching programs the VLC is available for instruction from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. five days a week, and to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Credentials at Secondary and Post Secondary Levels

In some cases, in part time programs and usually in the BOOST program, the VLC program design is complemented by correspondence courses from the Distance Education Branch, service from K-12, and from Thompson Rivers University (TRU) for the post secondary level.

The content of these courses is taught in an engaging way to each student one-to-one, using the principles outlined in the program design. The student then prepares the send-in activities independently as would be done in a school situation.  The work is objectively marked by an outside marker assigned by the distance education system.  In this way students achieve their credentials, which may be used towards whatever diploma they are working on. As well, and most importantly, they learn the ‘how to learn and how to perform’ strategies and techniques (see learning to learn) for future successful performance outcomes.

Performance Outcomes

Because students are taught the course content in the way they learn best, grades for these courses are outstanding, usually well beyond what students have been able to achieve in any other academic situation.

Math 10, 11 and 12 and English 11 and 12 are courses that are commonly taken by part time students who are intellectually bright enough to go on to post secondary instruction but are challenged by their long term difficulties to succeed in their Math program to get a good enough grade to enter the institution of their choice.  BOOST students choose from the wide array of courses offered either in on-line or paper format.

School Collaboration

If the student is participating in a public or private school based program, a special effort is made to collaborate with their current teachers.

When appropriate, the assessment report is provided (with parents’ permission) and discussed either in a school visit or by phone, and a plan of collaborative action is undertaken.