Paul Cliffe at the POA Learning Centre at Intake & Belle Vue, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire has been working closely within the community, spending time forging those links that enable POA Learning to work with some of the most deserving people in the community.

POA Learning has been supporting the local schools in Intake and the surrounding areas, offering workshops in ‘ADHD Awareness’, ‘Autism Awareness’ and other one off sessions provided for the parents and the staff.

Paul is very positive about the work POA Learning has been doing and said:

Working with local schools has been an important part of the strategy to develop links within the community”.

This strategy has had a positive effect for the parents of the local schools and recently Paul was contacted by one of the local schools regarding one of their teaching assistants, Amanda, who wanted to do her Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) qualification. The problem was that Amanda needed her level 2 in Mathematics to be able to progress on to the course.

Paul takes up the story;

After a brief information advice and guidance session with Amanda, we confirmed that maths would be the only skill that was needed for her to access the HLTA. Once she had completed her diagnostic assessments, her learning journey had begun. In fact Amanda has enjoyed the experience so much, and been so positive about the teaching that Sheree, a teaching assistant from the same school has now joined POA Learning to update and improve her maths so she can complete her HLTA qualification.”

Amanda had this to say about her experience at Intake & Belle Vue Learning centre in Doncaster:

It is brilliant to have such a great place to learn and gain skills so close to work and where I live”.

Now I can learn in normal working hours and it has meant that I haven’t had to sacrifice any family time, which is very important to me”.  

Sheree was also very positive and had this to say about her learning journey with POA Learning;

I was really nervous about joining the group; I never liked maths at school, and was worried about trying to learn as an adult.”

But it has been great, I have finally clicked on fractions and working out areas, it is a great feeling to finally appreciate maths and feel like I could answer any maths question my son asks me now”.

Paul and POA Learning have been happy to support Amanda and Sheree progress and develop in their skills and felt it good to watch the progress they have made both in terms of mathematics skills but also confidence which is a fabulous achievement.