School Program

Ready to Learn!

The Learning Connections’ School Program is an evidence-based neurodevelopmental movement program that enhances children’s ability to focus, builds confidence and social skills, and boosts their ability to learn.

The program consists of a set of movement exercises for the whole class, delivered by teachers, and taking 15 to 20 minutes to complete each day.

  • Designed for school teachers working with children aged 5 to 12 years – from Prep to Year 6.
  • The School Program works by addressing the underlying factors that can interfere with a child's development.
  • Teachers are regularly asked to respond to the needs of children with developmental immaturities that present in a variety of ways including: poor concentration, poor physical ability, speech and language immaturities or poor sensory motor development.
  • The School Program provides a practical and simple program to address such issues. However the benefits extend to the whole class, settling them and preparing them for effective learning.
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School image

How the School Program works

Stage 1

  • A two-day teacher training workshop which includes hands-on training with the movement activities
  • Parent and Community engagement workshop
  • Delivered onsite or through our Public Workshops

Stage 2

  • Typically occurs 4–6 weeks after Stage 1
  • Critical to reinforce and strengthen the skills for implementing the Program effectively
  • Onsite one day Review (or two half days) to coach and support individual teachers to embed the Program, troubleshoot, extend activities and refresh their knowledge
  • Hands-on mentoring

Annual refreshers

  • We recommend an annual refresher workshop to ensure continuity
  • Replicates the Stage 2 process and includes a half day workshop for teachers, classroom reviews to mentor individual teachers with specific classes
  • Also includes a one-hour parent and community engagement workshop, especially to orient parents who are new to the Program

Professional development that offers real benefits in the classroom

Factors contributing to school-readiness and academic learning

Learn about the impact of individual child factors and development upon school readiness and academic success: including sensory systems, motor skills, executive functions, social-emotional learning and higher cognitive abilities. Explore environmental factors which also impact readiness, including the built, social, school and home environments.

Support holistic development

Dive deep into key topics such as: critical periods for neural development and plasticity; the sensory system and sensorimotor integration; the importance of movement and the connection between motor skills and cognitive development; how the vestibular system impacts learning and behaviour and how you can enhance vestibular function; proprioception and body awareness; tactile and auditory systems; self-regulation.

Program Delivery

Examine the practical methods of how to deliver the School Program and integrate it with your existing curricula. Flexibility is important to us and we regularly adjust activities and delivery strategies to suit particular educational environments, curricula, learning frameworks or routines. Most importantly, we listen to educators in practice and continually develop the Program utilising their feedback.

Collaboration

We encourage pooling resources to achieve best outcomes for a wider group. In Stage 1, staff from several schools come together for the two-day Teacher Training Workshop. In Stage 2, each school undertakes separate one-day centre reviews, and each school hosts separate Parent Engagement Sessions

Partnering with Families

Through a Parent and Community engagement workshop we provide an opportunity for families to learn how the Program works, listen to any particular needs of the community and make suggestions for varying the delivery to respond to those needs. We describe strategies for the home environment: diet, mealtimes, physical activity and screen time.

Follow-up is key

4 to 6 weeks after the initial training, Stage 2 is an individualised hands-on mentoring process to assist educators to implement the Program with their groups and address specific questions they may have. Our trainers review how educators deliver the activities and provide guidance on techniques and further integration. Stage 2 also includes a follow-up workshop for families.

Take home resources

All Program participants receive a program manual, a set of flashcards to use as a reminder of the core activities and our ‘5 Minute Moves’ song list – a fun playlist with songs to accompany each of the core activities.

Teachers receive a certificate of completion for the workshop they attend.

Learning Connections’ professional development workshops contribute to Teachers and Early Childhood Educators CDC (Continuing Professional Development), aligning with the following Quality Frameworks: Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: 1, 4 and 7; ACECQA National Standards: Quality Areas 1, 2 and 5.

Dianne presenting

Let's develop a proposal together

Provide us with some basic information and let’s organise a time to talk. We write a tailored proposal for each of our clients, and happily answer any questions you have before committing to introducing the School Program into your school.

Call us or request a callback here

Prefer a Public Workshop instead? Check here if any are scheduled near you.