Cambrilearn is an online personalized education provider, accredited by COGNIA, with over a decade experience preparing students globally for the GCSE, AS and A level certified exams.
The GED® is an internationally recognised American grade 12 equivalency credential offered by the GED® Testing Service. It is a popular choice among students who are studying outside of the mainstream school system.
Marlene van Rooyen is the founder and the owner of MPower Learning Centre for self-directed teens and is a qualified teacher with over 35 cumulative years’ experience in both mainstream and alternative education.
After teaching at a Montessori school for many years she found coming back to mainstream teaching quite challenging. Schools seemed to be at war with teenagers. In November 2014 she boldly quit her job as a teacher and went on to open a learning centre in February 2015. Her vision was to create a safe space for teenagers where learning could happen naturally and where it was not forced. She was driven by the desire to facilitate learning that could be tailored to the students’ needs during this extremely sensitive period in their lives, with the goal of ensuring they are prepared for the next steps.
All tutoring at the centre is grounded in the Montessori philosophy: Follow the child. Each learner enters this world as an individual and will be viewed as such by all in the centre. They will be encouraged to learn and to take individual responsibility for both their lives and academic journey, whilst still placing manners, respect, courtesy and grace at the heart of all activities.
Marlene discovered through her experiences that there are too many learners who are trapped in a system where they’ve never experienced, first-hand, what the ‘Fruit of Life’ tastes like. Instead, they are most often told what it should taste like, so it is for this reason that her vision at MPower Learning Centre is to enable learners to taste it for themselves. Even though a structured curriculum is followed, the way each individual student learns is self-directed i.e. it is up to them. Alongside this the understanding is fostered that with freedom, comes responsibility.
Marlene aims to empower learners to find their unique learning skill, to take responsibility for their own learning and to feel safe with the direction received from the facilitators and tutors at the centre. Learners are encouraged to explore other areas of learning and to develope all skills in a holistic, well-balanced manner. Thanks to this, the focus has always been consequences rather than punishment, active learning rather than passive learning, and fostering a love for learning rather than the mastering of curricula.
