About Enhanced Learning Educational Services
Our Organisation
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) is an Australian business specialising in study skills. Operating since 2001, we are based in Sydney although our clients extend from schools throughout Australia to international schools overseas. Prue Salter, the founder and driving force behind ELES, has written all of the ELES resources and presents all of the study skills sessions and parent/student evenings.
Our Mission
To provide a worthwhile and effective service to teachers, students and parents by enhancing students’ learning skills and abilities. Our dynamic sessions and resources unlock the power of the mind and enable greater success at school and in life.
Our Commitment
As part of ELES' commitment to education, 5% of gross income (not net!) is donated to charities that help and assist children. We donate to charities that improve children's lifestyle, education or opportunities. We welcome reccommendations from our customers of charities to support.
Donations made by ELES are listed below:
Donations for 2008
Amount |
Organisation |
| US$10,000 | Room to Read - to build a library for a school in Cambodia.
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| US$1500 | The Maitreya Universal Education Project http://www.maitreyaeducation.org/ Benefiting students in Northern India. |
| US$1500 | The Cambodian Children's Fund http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/ Founded to aid the most impoverished of Cambodia’s children. |
| AUD$2000 | Nepcam |
| AUD$2000 | 96 year old Jesuit Priest in Macau working in Macau since 1950s now working with children in leper colonies (yes leper colonies do still exist) http://www.jesref.org |
On a trip recently, I bought a book in the airport 'Leaving Microsoft to Change the World' by John Wood (http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/). I could not put it down. It is about a guy who while on holiday in nepal is appalled at the lack of resources in schools, the low attendance rate and literacy levels and sets about making a difference in a big way. He started a group called Room to Read (http://www.roomtoread.org/). Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish schools, libraries, and other educational infrastructure as well as educational scholarships.
So I had to get involved. I have paid $10,000 US for the establishment of a free-standing library at the Wat Chi Kreng Primary School in the Siem Reap province of Cambodia. The library will be built in the traditional Khmer style, and will include child friendly furniture, flooring, shelving, maps, puzzles, games, and of course, books. Room to Read will stock the library with English and Khmer books totalling 500-1,000 over 3 years, and will provide 3 years of library management training to a designated teacher. Wat Chi Kreng Primary School is located in a poor rural area in Siem Reap where families rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood. After this library is built 664 children (in a 6 room school!) will have access to a new colorful and engaging reading room. If you'd like to see photos and more info about the school click here.
I NEED YOUR HELP!
The library should be ready mid 2008 and I would love for some students at your schools to write letters to the students there so they can use them to practise their English. If you have any classes you might like to do this activity with, have the students in the class write a simple letter ‘Hi, My name is….' and just talk about themselves, their lives and their interests. Maybe draw some pictures. Even better if they made a card or wrote inside a card or added something fun to the page. Decorating the page with photos from magazines, or pictures along with a simple letter would be great. Then just package them up and post them to me at PO Box 9 Neutral Bay NSW 2089. I hope to go and visit the library and I’d love to be able to take each of the 664 students a letter (even if it is not personally addressed) from a student in Australia that they could keep and take home and use to practise their English.
You can print this page for your noticeboard about the letters: Noticeboard Info
Thanks to St Mary Star of the Sea College Wollongong who sent the first batch of letters through, 45 of them!
Thanks also to Moorefield Girls High who sent another 13 letters.
Thanks to Bentleigh Secondary College who sent 40 letters (with lots of illustrations!).
566 letters to go! I hope to take them over to Cambodia sometime soon!
Thanks! Prue Salter
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Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
...........the study skills specialist!
Isn't it frustrating when you go to a website and there is no actual information there like prices or course content or availability. Good news! Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) is not at all secretive about our pricing or products or services.... we are proud of what we do, we know our products and services are worthwhile and real value for money, so on our website you should be able to find out everything you would possibly need to know - and more! If not, just email or call us so we can answer your question (and then we'll add it to our website!). Feel free to call us anyway if you are not a web person and would rather just chat than have to look through lots of web pages.
Everything you need to know about Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) can be found through the links above (we have recently revamped the navigation of our site to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for), but we know some people would rather read through a bit of an overview. If so, this section is just for you!
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) specialises in study skills resources and study skills sessions for high school students although we also have some study skills resources available for teachers to use with upper primary students. My name is Prue Salter and as the founder and director of Enhanced Learning Educational Services, I'd like to welcome you to our website.
After working as a teacher and a Year Coordinator for a number of years, I started to look around for ways to help my students develop their study skills. With both study skills sesssions and study skills resources, it is difficult to find a balance between things that are flashy and entertaining but with little content, or things that are jam packed with content but presented in a dry and boring format. I wanted study skills resources and study skills sessions that had relevant and practical content but that were presented in a way to engage the interests of students. While still working as a teacher, I started Enhanced Learning Educational Services and began to research and develop both study skills sessions and study skills resources. After a few years, I devoted myself to ELES full-time (while doing a Master of Education as well - still slogging through this!) and now I seem to think and breathe study skills perpetually. If you'd like more details of my education and experience, just click here: Prue Salter
One thing that was important to me, was to give back in some way to the community. Maybe it is my upbringing from an education in Catholic schools, or maybe it is due to my mum, but I definitely have a strong sense of service. I decided from the outset that I would give 5% of every dollar the business earnt to charity. This was actually a hard decision to commit to, a lot of companies donate a percentage of their net proceeds but there is a big difference between the gross proceeds and the net figure after expenses and tax. I decided that I really wanted to be serious about it so I went for donating straight from the gross income. At times this is difficult as you look at the money put away for donations and think that there are so many other things you could do with it on a personal level, but it is a real sense of satisfaction for me to see how many charities I have contributed to through Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES). If you'd like to see a list of the charities Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) has donated to, scroll to the list above. If you have a suggestion of a charity, I am always interested to hear it, simply click here: Contact Details. I also do some freebie sessions to schools who are in challenging circumstances. And speaking of freebies, you can download some worksheets for free at this link: Study Skills Freebies.
So, what products and services do we offer?
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
- Study Skills Online Handbook
This is a brand new product just launched in 2007. I wanted something that brought together all the work I have done on study skills - a complete reference or guide to study skills. Whenever I search on the Net to find study skills info a mass of links appear and while some are better than others, none of them is really comprehensive. I also wanted something that parents (or students) could access when they wanted to find out something about study skills. The way it works is that a school will subscribe to the service each year. They will be given a user name and password for the year that they can then give to all of their teachers, parents and students to allow them to access the site. Teachers may also use the site at school, having students print off the accompanying handout for each section (or alternatively printing it and copying it for the students) then have students work through particular units while at school. Alternatively if a student is struggling with a particular area of study skills they may reccommend the students complete a particular unit at home. There are lots of special features, so if you'd like to find out more click here: Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) Online Study Skills Handbook
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
- Study Skills Resources
With around 20 different products to choose from, Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) study skills resources help teachers to support the work done in the school's pastoral program or in study skills sessions and to develop students’ skills. Purchase of each product also gives the school full photocopy rights to make copies year after year for every student. Products are available in hard copy format in a ring bound folder at AUD$132 or alternatively at a discounted price of $99 for PDF format. For schools in Australia, if you would also like to view all of our resources we can post you an ‘On Approval’ CD where you can view all of the resources in entirety. In addition to these products there is also a DVD suitable for Years 7-9 on 'Effective Examination Preparation'. High school in NSW/ACT/TAS/VIC starts at Year 7, in QLD/WA/SA/NT it starts at Year 8 and in New Zealand at Year 9. So you need to ensure you click on the correct area when looking at products for your students. Here are some links to get you started:
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All of the Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) resources are distributed from East Maitland by Annette Mann.
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
- Study Skills Parent/Student Evenings
I don't know how I came up with the concept of the Parent/Student Study Skills Evenings but it works really well. I wanted both parents and studenst to hear the same message and I also wanted to create and environment where parents and students have the opportunity to discuss some of the issues that arise around school and study. The discussions are guided, and because everyone else is doing it even the most reluctant teenagers can actually open up a bit! The feedback from parents in particular has been excellent but students too also find it worthwhile with comments like 'I got to tell my mum about....'. The way it works is that the school will organise the evening for a Year Group or a number of Year Groups and parents and students attend a 1.5-2 hour study skills evening where they learn new information and participate in guided discussions together.
If you are a parent you might like to visit this link: LINK FOR PARENTS and if you are from a school you might like to view some of these links:
Check Availability, Schools that have run Evenings, Feedback from Evenings, Content of Evenings, Pricing Policy, Other Frequently Asked Questions
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
- Study Skills Sessions
The Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) Study Skills Sessions for year groups have been extremely well received over the past five years with over 30000 students and parents benefiting from the sessions I run. Basically, I come to your school and run a study skills session with the whole year group (sessions vary from 45mins to 1.5 hours in length.) I have often been asked why I don't hire other people to run sessions for me or franchise the business and there are a number of reasons. One is that really I just don't want the hassle of having staff! But more importantly, as a teacher, an educator and a perpetual student, I bring a background to the sessions that allows me to have a great rapport with the kids, to connect with them, to answer any sort of question they throw at me, to adapt the sessions as I go to the mood and tone of the year group, to use good teaching strategies to keep them engaged and to manage a large group in a way that people of non-teaching backgrounds sometimes find difficult. In addition to this, I am constantly developing and revamping the materials. Even though I advertise about 10 or so different studys skills sessions, I actually have well over 100 and fast approaching 150 different versions as with each year group I tailor a study skills session that will best suit their needs taking into account the following:
- How much study skills work (if any) the Year Group has covered.
- Whether the Year Group has attended an Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) session before.
- The focus that the Year Coordinator feels the group needs.
- What time of the year the session is held.
- When the examination period (if any) is for the school.
- The make-up and background of the Year Group.
- What the 'feel' is among the Year Group at that point in time.
Because I know the material really well, and am passionate about it, the message is convincing. I keep records on each group I see so that if I see them next year I can build on the study skills work I have done and introduce new techniques. I also work together with schools that use Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) across a large number of year groups in order to develop a tailored program to meet the needs of the school.
Another question I am asked is why I don't run multiple sessions after school hours over a period of a number of weeks. There are already lots of companies that do this. Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES) provides a different type of study skills experience, and there is no reason why you can't offer both to your students. My sessions are usually held during school hours, for the whole year group together (although for large groups at times the group is spilt in half and the session repeated). Maybe you only have a small amount of time available like a pastoral period or maybe your students are not interested in paying for, or attending, an after school program for a number of weeks - which typically costs easily 15 times more than my sessions. Or maybe you already have a strong pastoral program that addresses study skills and you just want to do something different to enhance or reinforce the work you are doing at school with your students. Or maybe you have exams coming up and you want to inspire students to start studying! With many schools, I see every year group once (and sometimes twice) a year, and each year I build on the work done previously with the students so their skills are developed in a progressive manner. Lots of schools also use the resources as follow-up throughout the rest of the year.
Some useful links: The most popular link: Check Availability
Other links: Schools that have run Sessions, Feedback from Sessions, Course Content, Pricing Policy, Other Frequently Asked Questions, Study Skills Packages, Print Catalogue
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
- Study Skills Staff Info Sessions
I never actually planned to run staff sessions but a school asked me to do one to let their staff know what study skills work I was doing with the students and how the staff could support this. It was actually a really good idea! I have designed this session from the practical approach that I like to take in all my sessions, and look at what teachers can really do to help students develop good study skills. Teachers are much more difficult to present to than students, they talk more and ask harder questions! But as most professional development sessions can be pretty dry, at least my session is a bit different as like with the students, the teachers can't just sit and listen, they have to actually interact and do activities. A few links of interest: Content, Pricing Policy, Feedback
Finally,
If you would like to receive a newsletter no more than once a term from Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES), click here: Join Mailing List. You can also read details of our Privacy Policy. If you would like to give us feedback about some aspect of Enhanced Learning Educational Services' (ELES) business, click here: Feedback Form.
And I think that is it!
All the best,
Prue Salter
Enhanced Learning Educational Services (ELES)
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