Testimonials

An interview with Gwynn, the mother of a year 7 girl

I wanted to work with Anne because…I was worried about her reading and writing and believed that Anne could help my daughter achieve to the level I thought she should be.

What impressed me most about the STC coaching?   ‘ANNE!’ She was persistent with mother and daughter. My child now believes in herself and knows that if she sets goals , anything can be achievable.

What caught your eye as being different from other learning centres? Anne believed in us and there was great communication.

What benefits do you think there are for families coming to the STC? The confidentiality, learning how to set and follow through with goals and the workshops she ran were worth their weight in gold to learn about the current education system.

Examples if specific gains I have noticed in my child are….Confidence, belief in herself, identifying what was stopping us from achieving well, and then actually achieving the goals set in maths and reading.

How do you feel about the results you have seen? I feel incredibly grateful!

A letter from a student aged 9 on his last coaching session with me:

Dear mum and dad,

You’ve done well with helping me learn my times table and also encouraging me to write a 2nd story with lots of pages. Because of your help I’m not afraid to do my times table and I’m a bit more confident to do my school work. I passed about 10 hard as word questions today with adding or minus. So thank you for helping me achieve this goal – like the Fifa Cup. I’m not afraid to show others things that I’ve learnt and to teach them.

I think I’m concentrating better at school because people keep trying to talk to me and I ignore them most of the time. I’m practically finishing things on time now. Anne thinks you should check in with the teacher about that. Mrs Davies my music teacher has actually said I’m concentrating better and learning well.

Anne says that I still need to concentrate a little more during my coaching time, but that I had definitely improved and that she has been enjoying coaching me. I have learnt my 3 times tables and now I need my 4 times, 6, 7, 8, 9, times tables. She suggests that I can learn one table a week. She has also taught me how to multiply problems such as 83×2=166 and 43×3=129 so I need to keep practising them.

Anne wants me to keep reading every day, and I want to finish the famous five series.

My hand writing is nearly on target, but we are not writing much at school. I want to write another Mc Chicken story called “The adventures of Josh Mc Chicken Jones: I’m gonna put the mystery of the lost Margarita Diamond: maybe a murder mystery as well in the same book: I’ve agreed to write 15 mins with proofreading included. I’ll do it , Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday after refreshment.

I’ve agreed to coach with you both 3 days a week and we’ll do some maths and writing, and some reading.
By Josh

An interview with a mother who has a twelve year old boy.

I wanted to work with Anne because…I heard that she had good results with children’s learning when others had not.

What impressed me most about the STC coaching? Being involved, the transparency, learning how to coach my child, and Anne is amazing.

What caught your eye as being different from other learning centres? It was independent and not fancy, not following popular trends or a shiny franchise, friendly, welcoming, serious, inclusive and open.

What benefits do you think there are for families coming to the STC? You get involved, get to be part of their learning, and the relationship with my son has been strengthened.

Examples if specific gains I have noticed in my child are….Confidence he can learn, a reduction in the strategies to avoid learning, begun to take learning seriously, he has learnt he can learn like other kids, he’s more confident.

How do you feel about the results you have seen? I feel relieved, grateful and thankful.

An interview with Katlin, a year 11 girl, just before her exams

I wanted to work with Anne because… I wanted to improve everything in general and needed help to get there.

What caught your eye as being different from other learning centres? The different atmosphere. Other centres have heaps of people and you can’t concentrate easily. With one-on-one you have someone there all the time.

 

Examples if specific gains I have noticed are…I can now do the subjects at school. I’m more confident in my abilities and tell myself I can achieve. I now know how to study and figure out the things I don’t understand. I have achieved higher grades in Science in an internal assessment already.

How do you feel about the results you have seen? I feel confident that I can get more than just an achieved now. I feel excited about that. It’s exciting to know that I can do well.

What benefits do you think there are coming to the STC? You learn study skills you can use throughout school and after.

What impressed me most about the coaching was… The way Anne always believes I can get Merits and Excellences. She never gave up on me. The plans and strategies worked because they showed up in my results.

 

An interview with a mother of a nine year old boy

 I wanted to work with Anne because…Anne came highly recommended to us – specifically for her approach and ability to work with smart kids who were not achieving so well in the school system.
It was also important to me to find someone who believed in our child and who was willing to work with us and guide as parents on what we needed to do to help support him with his learning at home.

What caught your eye as being different from other learning centres? Anne believed in our son the second she met him.
Individuality and flexibility of approach – Anne took the time to get to know our son as an individual and to gain an understanding of what made him tick. Anne tailored her approach to suit, trying different things, whilst being astute in promptly working out what was or was not working. Anne wasn’t fazed if our son reacted badly (when he first came to Anne he had developed some challenging habits and behaviours). Anne progressively worked on these.
Anne was open and upfront with her insights, yet at the same time was always approachable. We were able to share our thoughts as parents and felt Anne listened to our input. Anne worked with us and guided us on what activities and approaches we could do and try at home to support our son in his learning and to help change some of his more challenging habits and behaviours.

Examples if specific gains I have noticed in my son are…There was gradual improvement in our son’s school report. Each 6 monthly report showed improvement over the prior report. Our son is now working to expectation in his year/level. He was well below at the time he first came to Anne.
Our son’s confidence level and the way he talks about himself have improved significantly. He is not afraid to try new things. He now has the knowledge and experience that trying and practice gradually gains results. His perseverance has improved and he is more accepting of doing the work.
Our son has also developed a greater awareness of himself. He recognises his own strengths and successes s, but is also more conscious of his bad habits and behaviours and he is now showing he is able to manage his responses and reactions in a much more constructive way.
At the end of 2013 I asked my son what was his highlight from everything he had seen and done all through the year…..His answer was the fact that at seven years old he had written his first chapter book. This was a goal he had set himself in early 2013 through Anne’s goal setting exercise and he had really preserved with it spending over 40 hours of his own time after school working on it.

How do you feel about the results you have seen? I feel a tremendous amount of pride in my son and the effort he has put in and the results he has achieved. I am delighted and relieved at the same time. When we first started with Anne my son’s struggles with school work had made him angry, frustrated, manipulative, and at times violent. He was unhappy and he had lost all his confidence.
I now feel that I have my wonderful, loving, creative, fun, smart, confident and crazy son back! Thanks to Anne I have the added benefit of having a better understanding of how he ticks and a much greater appreciation of all his unique qualities as a person.

What benefits do you think there are coming to the STC? Anne’s approach is flexible and centers on the individual students needs and motivations. Anne works with the family, supporting them in what they can do to gain the best learning and development outcome for the student.

What impressed me most about the coaching was….Whilst Anne challenged and extended our son, and at times it was certainly hard work, it wasn’t all hard work. Anne developed a great rapport with our son and tried to make learning as fun and engaging as possible.

 

An interview with Lucy, a year 12 girl

I wanted to work with Anne because…I was really disorganised. I couldn’t plan my time wisely, or if I planned, I didn’t follw through and do the work. I also need to plan my essays

What caught my eye as being different from other learning centres was…it was more personalised and helpful. I was learning how to study in my own time, rather than just learning facts.

Examples if specific gains I have noticed  are….I can plan in ways that suit me and that work. I know what suits me more. I’ve improved English essay writing skills. I know how to study for exams with any subject using topic pages. I was achieving Merits and now have been achieving more Excellences.

How do you feel about the results you have seen? I feel better when studying. I’m actually learning instead of just sitting in front of my books. I feel confident I can use the skills Anne has taught me in the future when I go to university.

What benefits do you think there are for families coming to the STC? Students can personalise what they want to learn, both the skills they want and how they learn those skills. She can coach how to learn nearly any subject.

What impressed me most about the STC coaching was…It was different and more effective. It applied to me not just in school but in my life.