The Vancouver Learning Centre
is the "Village" it takes
to get the very best outcome
for each learner.
The VLC is a Learning Centre, not a school. Click here for clarity.

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.

The Vancouver Learning Centre
is the "Village" it takes
to get the very best outcome
for each learner.
The VLC is a Learning Centre, not a school. See here for clarity.
Dr. Schwartz here...

Parents Advisory

Home Schooled Students with or without Learning Disabilities

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 well served by public and private schools.

Generally, there is a mismatch between the needs of the student and the education services available to them. Reasons for this mismatch may include:

  • The student has a learning disability that is undiagnosed, or is not manageable in the classroom
  • There is a learning style that makes them uncomfortable or anxious in the classroom
  • There is a combination of factors such as a learning disability combined with giftedness or combined with developmental delay
  • Or there is a temporary problem such as a particular school situation or an illness. In these cases the Vancouver Learning Centre can act as a wonderful transition space, a bridge between where they are at the moment and where they want to be
  • There is a personal-family value or philosophy that does not match the education system available
  • A targeted program design that:
    • uses optimal teaching strategies
    • addresses both learning disabilities and remedies
    • addresses gifted domains that would benefit from enrichment
    • provides enabling programs to build knowledge platforms in Science, Social Science and the Humanities for future learning
    • provides targeted professional teaching support and support for earning credentials in academic subjects
    • provides cognitive behaviour management (CBT) for behaviour or anxiety that is keeping them out of the mainstream
    • prepares them either to return to the classroom by providing professional teaching in all academic subjects, especially in upper level high school courses in Math or Science that may be beyond the skill set of their primary home teacher, or provides an ongoing program to help them graduate to the next stage in their education, including earning a high school leaving diploma.
    • provides transition services to post-secondary training through support for college level correspondence courses through Thompson River University (TRU) or through active support in college and university courses.

The Vancouver Learning Centre program for home schooled students works with the student's home school agency as the student's home school and provides a professional wrap-around comprehensive service that allows the experience of being in a class of one.  This student, educated at home, will achieve goals of a personal best outcome.

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