the ACHIEVE STORY

ACHIEVE began in 1994, when as an Arts/Law undergraduate and HSC High Achiever, Dr Tamara Jones-Hood began to tutor high school students in a variety of subjects. By 1998, she was involved in teaching Sociology and Psychology in the Humanities faculty at Charles Sturt University and she found that she enjoyed teaching so much that after completing her Honours degree she decided to change her focus to Education. While completing her Graduate Diploma of Education (for which she received the First in Degree prize), Tamara was invited by her university to begin a PhD in Education and she commenced teaching within the Education faculty in 2000. She taught across all degrees - Primary Education, Secondary Education, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Masters of Education - teaching a variety of subjects including English and HSIE curriculum, Technology and Applied Sciences (TAS), Sociology and Practicum subjects as well as teaching at the Masters level specialising in Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods and other research subjects. During this time, Tamara also taught in many local secondary schools, teaching a variety of subjects including English, Mathematics, Economics, Society and Culture, Legal Studies, History, Geography, TAS and other subjects as needed including French. This passion and extensive teaching and research experience allows her to comprehensively guide her staff as they provide innovative learning support for our many students.

BUILDING ACHIEVE

Tamara left full-time teaching and lecturing in 2005 to prepare for the birth of her daughter Aviva and focus on building ACHIEVE. While she continued to teach at the university level in a part-time capacity, ACHIEVE began to rapidly grow and by the end of 2007, the extensive waiting list for places at ACHIEVE meant Tamara needed to look for the right people to join the ACHIEVE team. Initially employing two highschool teachers, ACHIEVE began to rapidly grow, requiring the team to further expand within 6 months to include primary teachers. ACHIEVE has continued to exponentially grow since then, resulting in a teaching team of 15 in 2021. During 2020, ACHIEVE employed its first Trainee Learning Support teacher and we were so pleased with what Liam Comerford was able to contribute to ACHIEVE, we have welcomed Lily Hamilton (an ex-ACHIEVE student) and Isolde Mamo to the ACHIEVE team. In 2018, Tamara purchased the ACHIEVE premises located at 34 The Esplanade providing us with the space we need to provide quality indoor and outdoor learning experiences. We have finished our final renovations and landscaping and can now provide diverse learning spaces for all of our students.

ACHIEVE CONTINUES TO GROW

The ACHIEVE team will continue to grow and expand in 2021 as we welcome new members who are deliberately selected due to their teaching excellence, ability to foster relationships and their shared teaching philosophy that places the student at the centre of all learning. We are excited to begin 2021 in our newly renovated premises located at 34 The Esplanade which will allow us the space to continue to support the learning of more students, including our new programs for our “Little Achievers” designed for young learners aged between 3 and 5 years and our French Conversational Program. Tamara has also recently registered with Psychological Assessments Australia to deliver and report on a variety educational, neuropsychological, speech and language, autism and related disorders assessments (as well as adult clinical and Human Resources assessments) which will allow us to critically evaluate students’ diverse learning needs and abilities so we can design individualised learning programs to suit each individual. ACHIEVE also now offers training in First Aid, Resuscitation and Anaphylaxis delivered by one of our qualitified teachers who is also registered as a Trainer and Assessor.

WHY ACHIEVE?

At ACHIEVE, each student is treated as an individual with specific learning needs. They are never part of a 'group' that has to work within a set curriculum. They learn at their own pace, using resources appropriate to their particular needs, enjoying teaching strategies designed specifically to enhance their learning gains. At ACHIEVE, you become a member of our family. We deeply care about each individual and foster relationships that support quality teaching and learning. This is why ACHIEVE will never sacrifice these relationships and teach in larger groups - we strongly believe that individualised attention supplemented by the opportunity to work independently with our support is the only way to effectively teach our students. Our students are encouraged to build these relationships through open communication and can contact us at any time via email, text message, phone or visiting our offices between their sessions in order to maintain their learning momentum. Our students are our primary focus at ACHIEVE and we believe we are privileged to be involved in their education. Our aim is to create a solid foundation on which to build the skills necessary to enjoy lifelong learning that will support students after they leave ACHIEVE and throughout their lives.

CREATIVE KIDS

Achieve is now a proud Registered Provider for the NSW Government’s CREATIVE KIDS program (Provider Number SN-139579616). Students aged between 4.5 and 18 years enrolled in school can use their CREATIVE KIDS voucher with us when undertaking one of our literacy-based programs of learning (classified as Literary or Linguistic Arts).

DR TAMARA JONES-HOOD: DIRECTOR

• B.Arts (Hons), Grad.Dip.Ed (Dist.), PhD

• B.Arts (Hons) - double major Sociology and Law. Minors in Politics and Economics. Honours in Sociology (Quantitative and Qualitative Project)

• Grad. Dip Ed. (with Distinction) - Secondary Education receiving the Australian College of Education prize for Excellence (first in degree)

• PhD - Sociology of Education - qualitative and quantitative research project applying Principal Components Analysis, Multivariate Analysis, Structural Equation Modelling and Grounded Theory

• Received Australian Postgraduate Award, Faculty of Education Award and Banksia Scholarship for completion of PhD and publication of research results

• Refereed publications and Travel Awards to present at international research and Australian conferences such as AACE, research results delivered at multiple international and Australian conferences.