RIVERSIDE STUDENT SUPPORT CENTRE
PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY 

The Riverside Student Support Centre provides a wide ranging, cross sectional and holistic approach to the provision of educational services to marginalised young people and those seeking a different approach to education. The centre provides a range of real life learning experiences which prepare young people for the modern world. These are designed to specifically tackle issues that teenagers are dealing with and promote practices which will help them lead a successful life. 

 

We celebrate diversity and difference. Our clients have often struggled in mainstream environments and we seek to help them use their differences to their advantage, rather than pressure them to conform to standards they may not want to/be capable of conforming to. 

 

We work closely with the client’s existing support structures and believe that family friends or other support networks are an important part of the client’s active engagement with their community and integral in them reaching their goals. As well as friends and family, maintaining and strengthening their cultural, spiritual, and language connections is an important part of this. 

 

We value the following: 

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• Self Esteem: Riverside Student Support Centre believes that without the development of self-esteem, young people cannot move forward in the pursuit of a meaningful life. 
   

• Honesty: Riverside Student Support Centre believes that without the honest ability to reflect on themselves and others, young people cannot move forward in understanding exactly what drives them. 
   

• Self-Discipline: Riverside Student Support Centre believes that without self-discipline, young people are incapable of working through the difficulties which stand between them and the realisation of their goals. 
   

• Responsibility for Your Own Actions: Riverside Student Support Centre believes the children of today must learn to take responsibility for their own actions. While accepting that there are many situations which are not the fault of the individual, it is incumbent on educators to teach the skills required to develop the resilience to cope with these situations when they arise. 
   

• Teach Globalisation is About Expansion of the Human Spirit: Riverside Student Support Centre believes globalisation is as much about understanding the differences between people and cultures as it is about economics and change. Our program provides clients with a chance to learn about and appreciate these differences as a way of enriching their own lives. 
   

• Tolerance and Acceptance: Riverside Student Support Centre promotes open, honest communication between clients, staff and parents. In alignment with the philosophy of seeking to understand in order to be understood, all Riverside Student Support Centre communication is designed to promote emotionally intelligent communications and conflict resolutions. 
   

• Real Life Learning: Riverside Student Support Centre believes that real life learning is based in a range of models which encourage young people to learn through experience rather than theory. 
   

• Leadership: Riverside Student Support Centre aims to develop leadership skills in all of our clients. This will give them the skills to be effective communicators, strong and effective operators in their chosen field and the ability to address the needs in their own lives and the world around them. 
   

• Service: At the heart of effective leadership is service. We also believe that it is the service of self and others that is the greatest motivator.  At Riverside Student Support Centre we teach that service is at the heart of a more meaningful and productive life.