The VLC is not a school but a Specialist Learning Centre. The VLC delivers a team-based process. A teaching captain is assigned to oversee the program delivery and to be the main contact with the parents who then become an integrated part of the team. Schools can then be involved as appropriate.
In the case of home schooling, the curriculum, homework tasks, testing, and the program to earn credentials and provide oversight to the curriculum is up to the distance education school. This becomes the learner’s school and the VLC will work collaboratively with the school’s contact person and will actively address all IEPs or special needs developed by that school.
Whether the student attends on site at VLC and remains as part of a class or works with a distance education school, the VLC becomes the specialist provider of one to one teaching based on the special needs of the learner in collaboration with the learner’s parents and the contact person assigned by the school.
Learner Cohorts
At the Vancouver Learning Centre, we are equipped to serve students with many kinds of learning needs. Each of the eleven cohorts below describes a type of learner served by the VLC. The groupings are based on years of experience working with students and have been created for the convenience of presenting parents with appropriate information.
We take great care to ensure that each program addresses the needs of the student it is designed for. Since no two learners are exactly the same, all of our programs are individually designed and are built around each learner to provide them with the best support possible.
Parents Advisory
Learning disabilities are considered the cause of the problem when the teachers or parents are alerted because of a learner’s weak academic performance and/or behaviours that reflect lack of regulation and emotional maturity that are not grade or age appropriate. Learning disabilities are diagnosed ...
Programs include:
- Learning to Learn VLC Signature Tools and Programs
- Neurocognitive training: auditory processing; visual processing; executive function; memory and attention
- Academic training: reading (decoding, reading comprehension); writing (written expression, spelling); math (operations, problem solving); language; science; social studies; learning and organization skills; test taking
- Dynamic one-to-one faculty teaching of academic correspondence courses towards earning credentials at all levels/or following elementary school curriculum where appropriate
- Behaviour (CBT) and emotional support
Parents Advisory
Giftedness is considered when parents and teachers are alerted that a young person is showing potential well above age and grade performances in language or motor abilities or by early mastery of academic skills such as reading, writing, spelling, use of language, or mathematics. Giftedness is diagnosed ...
- Early childhood (3-5 years) advanced development
- School age enrichment programs
- Challenge level teaching in areas of strength
Parents Advisory
Giftedness and Learning Disabilities appear together when both strong potential in some areas of test performance are present along with weak skills in others or when emotional regulation is immature. Giftedness with Learning Disabilities is diagnosed ...
- Learning to Learn VLC Signature Programs/Advanced
- Neurocognitive training if required
- Coaching in social and emotional skills
- Student underachievement, skill building
- All academic skills and curriculum support
- Advanced academic training in areas of strength
- Behaviour (CBT) and support if appropriate
Parents Advisory
Developmental (intellectual) disabilities and syndromes like Autism and Asperger’s, are considered when the learner’s performance in the ordinary skills of childhood in academic, cognitive, or emotional domains have not appeared at grade appropriate levels. Developmental disabilities are diagnosed ...
Programs included Language, Social, Behaviour and Early Academic Skills Training
- Early childhood (3-6 years) developmental delay/Learning impairment concerns
- School age (5-19 years) academic training; cognitive retraining; attention and behaviour training; executive function training; specialized procedures in learning to read, write, spell and do mathematics; build thinking skills
Parents Advisory
Children with behaviour disorders and emotional distress are often unsuccessful in the classroom. They demonstrate their unhappiness in a variety of ways. Children with ADHD are often unhappy going to school. Their best subject is recess or P.E. and their best day at school is the last day before summer holidays. They act out in class, or act the clown to avoid showing...
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Anxiety Disorders/with learning disabilities/with Giftedness/or both
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is used in combination with academic programs
- Worry Dragons, a program that teaches coping skills is used at the VLC in combination with other programs for anxiety behaviours
- Giftedness program (see Giftedness Advanced Achievement)
Parents Advisory
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the education and learning mastery of children, youth and young adults. Scientists and educators are raising the alarm that for some learners the deficit in skills and knowledge that occurred during the COVID-19 in-class disruption of education could become a life-lasting problem.
An inability to mastery skills at their current grade level due to an inability to consolidate new skills or have built-in deficits from previous grades, compounded by the 18 month gap in regular in-class educational delivery and a variable quality level of virtual screen-based learning.
Parents Advisory
Language, the ability to speak and communicate, is the carrier of intellectual development in all learning, and most particularly in academic learning. There are many causes of language delay. Hearing impairment, even if it is mild, and a whole variety of disorders like cleft palate or even simple blockages in the eustachian tubes in the ears, affect language learning.
Continue to Academic Underachievement and Language Development Delay
- Transfer from French Immersion
- English as a second language (English Language Learners)
- International school or school district transfer
- Transfer from cognitive based programs
- Health Issues
- Home schooling
Parents Advisory
When disease, or the effects of chemotherapy/radiation, or head injury due to sports injury or to automobile or accident occurs, the learning journey is interrupted, sometimes in devastating ways. At the Vancouver Learning Centre, intensive and comprehensive programs have helped children, adolescents and adults achieve “personal best” outcomes. We are here for the long...
When disease, or the effects of chemotherapy/radiation, or head injury due to sports injury or to automobile or accident occurs, the learning journey is interrupted, sometimes in devastating ways. At the Vancouver Learning Centre, intensive and comprehensive programs have helped children, adolescents and adults achieve “personal best” outcomes. We are here for the long term and have achieved some remarkable outcomes well beyond expectations.
Parents Advisory
Home schooled students can benefit in a variety of ways from a partnership between the professional teachers at the Vancouver learning Centre, their primary home teacher, and the students themselves. There are many reasons why students need to be schooled at home and outside the public or private school system even in a large metropolitan area like Metro Vancouver, which is...
Continue to Home Schooled Students with or without Learning Disabilities
Support in achieving academic credentials through active teaching of correspondence courses and strategic teaching using unique VLC methods for school age students 5-19 years.
Other Programs
BOOST is a full-service program that includes 10 hours of one-to-one intensive teaching, coaching and mentoring on a specifically designed and targeted program along with 15 hours of supervised on-site practice. This can be combined with a distance education curriculum through a home schooling agency which becomes the student's home school. If an IEP is available...
- A full-service intense program for the full school day, or a ½ day integrated with school (8 a.m. – 2 p.m. OR 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.) meant to serve as a bridge to the next stage of education
- Support for earning academic credentials to earn a high school leaving certificate or General Education Development (GED) (or elementary school in special cases)
*Younger students are sometimes accepted
Parents Advisory
There is a huge difference in the learning approaches and learning environment between Grade 12 and the first year in a post-secondary institution. Students move from a highly structured and prescribed learning environment in high school to one that has few rules or boundaries. The classes are large, absence from class is not always noted, and time frames for handing in...
Continue to High School Graduates, College and University Entrance
- University readiness/university preparation for excellence
- University readiness for VLC graduates and alumni
- University readiness for new clients without VLC assessment
- Preparation for SAT and Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
- Preparation for university level math courses
- Post Secondary curriculum support