Professional development that offers real benefits in the classroom

Learning Connections has been providing hands-on professional development workshops for teachers and early childhood educators since 1976.

Teachers and educators are regularly asked to respond to the needs of young children with developmental immaturities that present in a variety of ways, including:

  • Poor concentration – difficulty following instructions, easily distracted
  • Poor physical ability – difficulty sitting still on a chair, clumsy
  • Speech and language immaturities – poor hand writing, socialisation issues, doesn’t function well in groups
  • Poor sensory motor development – has to touch everything, can’t stop moving.

Our professional development workshops provide teachers and educators with practical tools that address these issues, stimulate the brain, and help children to settle and focus on learning.

See our range of classroom or centre programs below.

All workshops are anchored in our core sensory-motor and reflex integration program. We are flexible and adjust activities and examples to reflect the educational environments of participants who attend our training workshops. Our programs respond to the different needs and capabilities of children at different ages.

“We own 14 child care centres across Queensland and we have made a commitment to train our educators in Learning Connections after seeing the enormous benefits to the children in our care… We have seen huge improvements in the children’s ability to concentrate, their balance and spatial skills, their drawing and painting as well as their social skills.”

Julie Watts Operations Manager, Feng Holdings

Register now for a Learning Connections workshop and learn how to deliver our program in your classroom or centre.

Practical and fun classroom programs which help children concentrate and learn

Core Content Areas

“This is the best teacher professional development I have attended!”

Primary school teacher, Brisbane

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of a Learning Connections professional development workshop you will have acquired:

  1. An understanding of factors contributing to children’s attention concentration and learning difficulties, and what is behind behaviours such as wriggling, inability to sit still or stop talking, poor concentration, and problems playing in groups
  2. The ability to deliver the Learning Connections program: a set of simple activities that help the children in your class focus, concentrate and learn
  3. An awareness of environmental factors and the role of technology in children’s lives
  4. An understanding of the critical role of nutrition in development, and some tips for diet.

Contribution to CPD and Professional Standards

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

  • Standard 1 – Know students and how they learn
  • Standard 4 – Create and maintain supportive and safe learning
    environments
  • Standard 7 – Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.

ACECQA National Standards

  • Quality Area 1 – Educational program and practice
  • Quality Area 2 – Children’s health and safety
  • Quality Area 5 – Relationships with children.

You will receive a certificate of completion for the workshop you attend

Register now for a Learning Connections workshop and learn how to deliver our program in your classroom or centre.

It takes a village

We deliver public workshops tailored to meet the needs of your school, centre and community.

We are increasingly working with whole communities, engaging parents and community supporters to reinforce and maximise the impact of the classroom program.

Parental buy-in builds a child’s sense of security, confidence and motivation, and makes connections between the key people in a child’s life.

“At the start of each school day you will see students involved in the Learning Connections Program. You will also see a smile of the faces of parents walking past as they know their children are getting ready to learn. Parents have shared what they have heard and seen in action and noticed the difference it has made to their child’s focus. Having Learning Connections in our school is now a drawcard.”

Rita Cranitch, St Francis Primary School, Ayr

Public workshops

Warwick Region – School Program

Glennie Heights State School, Unit 5/12 Gillam St, Warwick

10th and 11th May 2021

AU$520

Townsville – School Program

The Cathedral School of St Anne & St James, 154 Ross River Rd, Mundingburra Townsville

21st and 22nd May 2021

AU$520

Toowoomba – Early Years Program

Highfields Community Kindergarten, 1 Bloodwood Street, Highfields, Toowoomba

11th and 12th June 2021

AU$520

Brisbane – Early Years Program

Play and Learn, 10 Payne Road, The Gap, Brisbane

8th and 9th July 2021

AU$520