About Us
'Our vision is to reach out and support inefficient learners to enable them to reach their full potential.'
Who are we?
'Efficient Learning', is a Christian based, non-profit making company (registration number 4499449) and also registered charity (number 1101501), based in North Buckinghamshire, UK.
Efficient Learning was established in 2001 by our founder, Carolyn Cage, AMBDA. EL became a non-profit making company in 2002. We gained registered charity status in January 2004.
What do we do?
EL specialises in assessment, teaching and training. We are committed to helping children and adults with specific learning difficulties to achieve their personal potential both academically and in other areas of their lives. We are happy to partner with other agencies to improve the quality and quantity of help for people with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties.
EL has helped over 200 children and adults so far. EL is dependent on fees from assessments, tuition and training courses, as well as the generosity of benefactors. We have procured limited funding through grants and donations with which we are able to subsidize lessons for a small number of underprivileged students.
We employ over 20 one-to-one teachers, including specialist teachers with qualifications and experience in carrying out assessment.
Where do we operate?
Our services are available through our centres held in schools, community buildings and some private homes.
We currently offer support to children and adults in Aylesbury, Winslow, Brill, Marsh Gibbon, North Marston, Weston Turville, Stoke Mandeville and Whitchurch in Buckinghamshire; Thame and Bicester in Oxfordshire; Tring, Radlett and Potters Bar in Hertfordshire. Assessments are currently carried out in Winslow and Princes Risborough.
What are our principals?
We are proud to uphold the following principles in our work with students:
EL begins by caring for the student and meeting them where they are. Many students have emotional problems which need to be overcome before remediation can take effect and we recognize that this might take time, imagination, and a great deal of patience.
The remediative methods we use draw on resources from a variety of sources including those of Dyslexia Action, many we have collected and devised ourselves and a method pioneered in the USA by an organization called NILD. The things which make Efficient Learning’s methods distinctive are as follows:
- Deficit stimulation – EL concentrates on working those perceptual and cognitive areas in which a student has a particular deficit e.g. auditory discrimination, visual sequencing etc. using a variety of techniques involving physical and mental exercises. The techniques are non-compensatory – we do not encourage students to use the areas in which they have strengths to compensate for their deficit areas. It has been shown that with the proper stimulation the brain grows and increases its propensity for learning. (Jensen, 1998, Teaching with the Brain in Mind).
- Non-tutorial - we do not teach subject content (except where students are approaching exams and ask for help with revision for a short period). Tutorial methods create dependence on the tutor. EL develops the underlying skills needed to facilitate independent performance.
- Integrated – the student is encouraged and helped to be able to integrate different brain functions and perform multiple tasks at one time.
- One to one – it is recognized that each pupil with learning difficulties is unique and has very different needs. One to one with a trained educational therapist ensures a safe setting in which tailor-made programs of remediation can be used to target specific deficits.
- Intense - the student’s active involvement in the learning process in ensured by guided questioning and interactive language. Students are not given an answer but are prompted by structured dialogue, which fosters metacognitive thinking. (Healy, 1990)
- Parental/partner involvement - parents/partners are required to be involved in the remediation process. Tasks are set, to be completed at home, which need assistance from another. We encourage parents/partners to attend sessions to learn how to support the student at home.
- All age inclusive – during the 1990’s and more recently the plasticity of the brain has been discovered. It has been shown that at any age, with the right kind of stimulation, the brain can be modified. Using Nuclear MRI scanning it is possible to show the growth of new dendrites in the brain following a period of stimulation. EL has taught pupils aged 4 to late 40s.
Where schools are willing, EL works alongside the classroom teacher ensuring integration. We gladly communicate by letter, meeting or phone call with teachers, parents or other agencies.
We welcome observations of our methods by appointment and the agreement of the student.
Take a look for yourself at our testimonials.