Absolutely! In fact, apart from Edworks’ online Practice Exams & Skills Assessment service, many of our scholarship preparation students stay on with us after sitting for their exams to further refine their skills through our progressive programs. Indeed, over 50 per cent of Edworks’ in-house students attend in this way, to gain The Edworks Advantage. That is, the awareness, skills and strategies to achieve success both academically and in every day life. At Edworks, we call this ‘working smart’, or, less time and effort for better results. Thus, Edworks’ students are offered enlightenment and an ‘understanding of the learning process’ to equip them for their school careers and beyond.

Many schools are centred on quantitative rather than qualitative measures of success: There is more concern that students ‘get the answer right’ than display constructive thinking that reflects ‘the processes’ used to arrive at solutions. Edworks’ teaching philosophy is sharply focused on the qualitative aspects of learning so that students are able to apply an ‘understanding of the learning process’ to solve problems. This enables them to enlist skills for creative, critical and lateral thinking and to thus move beyond their innate abilities to reach their potential. Edworks’ services range from a pre-school program to the final school year across a spectrum of educational and psychological areas. In all circumstances, Edworks seeks to stimulate and enlighten a student’s thinking, rather than offer humdrum, repetitious activities.

A student’s commitment to join Edworks Active Learning means Edworks, in turn, is committed to ensuring the student gains the best possible benefits within the minimum time frame. Imparting the keys for ‘working smart’ is only the beginning. The Edworks Advantage focuses on students’ development and refinement of the skills for ‘working smart’, to empower and equip them for success in their immediate school futures and beyond, into adulthood. The minimum membership period ensures a student has the opportunity to acquire a significant skills repertoire. This offers them an important edge to set them apart from their peers and thus, greater choices in their future careers.

It is important to be aware that only about the top three per cent of all students sitting for such exams are successful! Naturally given a year to prepare, most Edworks’ students are well equipped for such exams. Some, however, achieve scholarships and selective entrance exams placements after only being at Edworks for the minimum membership period of one term or 12 sessions. Principally, it depends on the student. Significantly, we often have families returning to Edworks, perhaps with younger siblings of previously successful students who have gained scholarships through Edworks’ progressive programs. Such experienced families are potently aware of the highly competitive nature of school scholarship and selective entrance exam positions. They are therefore keen to start their second or third child at Edworks in a timely manner, usually for at least two terms to a year. Whether they come for scholarship prep or other programs, Edworks’ students are continually learning, developing and refining their skills, and then enjoying the rewards at school. Some of our students stay with us for years, or may take a break and return later, to add more skills to their personal repertoires.

Each child who comes to Edworks has different needs. This fundamental reality means that students can only gain optimum results through personal programs that are designed specifically for each one. So, yes, we would target your children’s personal areas of need and tailor individual programs for each; this is a key aspect of Edworks’ modus operandi. Importantly, the inherent value of Edworks’ Personal Programs is the stimulation and motivation offered through the dynamics of its environment. Here, each child also benefits within a social context where student role models offer inspirational examples of the successes achievable through Edworks’ programs. Please see What are Personal Programs? for more information.

Where some organisations may offer rote learning, automatic feedback responses and standard computerised program learning to its students regardless of their individual needs, Edworks seeks to engage its students on a different level. Edworks’ innovative skill building techniques are offered to all students through its Personal Programs and are designed to cater for each student’s individual needs. Here, students learn how to think, how to set goals and to use their initiative. This instills confidence, motivates them to discard any fear of failure and to become risk takers in order to succeed. Edworks’ programs foster a desire for greater learning and skill development. Thus, students become equipped to make informed decisions and discerning choices and to become independent and skilled problem solvers and time managers.

In other words, Edworks offers its students ‘working smart’ skills and strategies to set them apart from their peers and to enhance their potential to do well at school. Importantly, these are the same skills and strategies that tomorrow’s employers will be seeking of the job seekers of the future. Such a future will be more competitive, more dynamic and more demanding of its employees than ever before.

Since its 1990 inception, the philosophy of Edworks Active Learning has embraced the raising of the awareness of the individual student, allowing them to step outside and beyond the sphere of their innate ability to become independent thinkers and problem solvers. Such teaching philosophy is supported by international studies and research findings. When it comes to educational theory and classroom learning strategies it cannot be said that Edworks’ simply offers ‘more of the same’. Please visit our Shop for further enlightenment.

No, our tutors do not come to the home and there are important reasons for this. When children attend Edworks’ centres, they are able to leave any negative labels that may have unwittingly been attached to them at school through unguarded comments or poor marks, or in the home, perhaps through sibling rivalry. At Edworks, in a positive, non-threatening and relaxed environment, students can start afresh. They quickly develop self-esteem and confidence as Edworks’ qualified staff acknowledge and commend their strengths before tackling areas of individual interest.

Importantly, at Edworks’ centres, we are able to offer the stimulation and encouragement necessary to foster an eagerness to learn in a professional setting. Our ability to manage learning in this way not only avoids the distractions of the home environment; it ensures that students can enjoy Personal Programs that are tailored to their individual needs. A significant feature of the progressive programs offered at Edworks’ centres, is that our professionally qualified staff members not only enjoy their work, but they, also, receive ongoing training through Edworks’ staff training programs. Home tutors, by comparison, may only be seeking to subsidise their income with a little extra money. Thus, they may not regard the tutoring role with the same level of professionalism towards the individual student, or be focused on successful outcomes.

Edworks’ online Practice Exams & Skills Assessment are designed to target the specific nature of assessment for Scholarship, Accelerated Program and School Entrance Exams and to promote student time management, creative, critical and lateral thinking, problem solving and effective communication. Students are encouraged to use Edworks’ online Practice Exams & Skills Assessment to assess current skill levels, to use feedback as a tool to further develop and refine exam techniques and strategies and to assess areas of interest they may wish to pursue in-house, at Edworks’ centres.

In a student’s final phase of exam preparation, online trials offer a chance to become familiar with the formalised exam structure under timed conditions. Importantly, this valuable experience allows students to appreciate the effectiveness of their Edworks-acquired skills and strategies under exam-like conditions.

As a policy, Edworks does not use computers. Computerised learning tends to promote 'answer driven' learning which simplifies learning to the point where students only see the answer, rather than the learning process, as the objective. Conversely, Edworks' personal programs, delivered by a tutor at the student's desk, promote divergent thinking (more than one possible answer), which fosters abstract thinking and creative problem solving.

Further, computer-based programs tend to ignore the importance of con-crete thinking, deductive reasoning and understanding concepts, and do little to promote the idea of independent learning.

While a number of tutoring businesses focus on computer-oriented rote learning, Edworks’ experience suggests computers have lost their glamour with many parents who value and seek the constructive input and life-lessons that computer programs cannot offer. (Should this pose a problem for parents, we suggest that such a computer program can always be used at home as an adjunct, if parents so desire.) In Edworks' experience, however, such concerns are seldom voiced.