Our message to funders
Why fund the Learning Ways Trust?
We exist so that Wellington children who have difficulty with learning to read do not miss out on essential help with literacy, when their parents cannot afford expensive assessments and extra tuition.
The difference your funding makes
Funding for Learning Ways Trust comes solely from grants and donations.
As a small not-for-profit Trust with low overheads, all our funding goes directly into supporting families and delivering our services.
In short, we need your funding assistance to change the lives of Wellington children with Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD).
Our educators work at what they consider a fair rate even though it is below market rates for these services.
Your grant will allow struggling students to experience success and enjoyment in the education system. This leads to improved social and economic prospects in their lives, their whanau and the wider community.
Changed lives
We have seen the success of the Learning Ways Trust model.
Children supported by Learning Ways Trust across Wellington are now:
- Learning to read
- Engaged in classroom learning
- Feeling more successful
- Happier, more confident learners.
Parents are:
- Relieved and encouraged that finally there is a way that works for their child to learn to read
- Feeling grateful that cost is NOT a barrier to their child’s learning.
How we assess who we work with
We receive referrals for assistance primarily from classroom teachers, SENCOs (Special Educational Needs Coordinators) or in schools that Learning Ways tutors are working in.
Schools identify children who are struggling with learning, with a suspected SLD, where families cannot afford the costs of assessment and tutoring.
The Learning Ways Board assesses applications for assistance based on consideration of:
- Learning need – assessed by our screening test if the student has not already been assessed
- Likely impact on the student’s learning – the evidence indicates intervention is most effective when it is received early and builds a positive relationship between student and tutor
- Risk – for some students, time may be running out to receive help before secondary school
- Financial circumstances of the family.
Why is our work in Wellington needed?
At present the New Zealand school teaching programme does not work for an increasing number of students who by 7 years of age cannot read.
This means many parents are forced to seek and pay for out of school specialist services, to help their children learn to read in a researched, evidenced based programme. Financially, this option is simply out of reach for many families, leaving their children lost to learning.
Our specialist services are free and based on science
Learning Ways Trust was created to serve the growing number of students who are from financially disadvantaged homes, who have not learned to read.
We benchmark our approach on a researched, evidenced-based programme that provides struggling children with the skills they need. Learning to read by knowing the sounds of letters, then learning to blend sounds into words.
Our target group
We are focused on children who are struggling with learning to read (SLD) from those families that are socially and financially marginalised therefore cannot seek or pay for services like ours.
Cultural representation of children with SLD
Maori and Pacifica are over-represented in the statistics for low educational outcomes and in lower socio-income statistics. Learning Ways Trust targets its assistance to Maori and Pacifica students.
Partner with us to transform lives
We need Funders who want to support the work that we do. Funders who think it’s not okay that a child’s future is lost because she/he has not learned to read by the age of 7.
If you are that organisation or individual, then please – join with us. Together we can create the type of change that transforms the lives of children with SLD.
Contact us today.
