With a love of learning, Joanna Mohammadi was inspired to start-up Orange’s brand-new Kumon Centre, after a wonderful involvement herself with the group.

“I was trying to learn fractions when I was in Year Seven and was really struggling, and I went to my local Kumon Centre and had a great experience,” Joanna revealed.

“Kumon has their own learning structure with a ‘big picture’ focus with each worksheet is aimed at helping your overall development,” she added.

Developed by Japanese teacher, Toru Kumon in the 1950s for his son, Takeshi to help him improve his math skills, the franchise is much more than just a rote learn-cram-pass tutoring school for struggling students.

It instead uses a self-paced, worksheet-based learning method designed to help children master fundamental concepts, regardless of their current school grade.

“One of the biggest things, is it’s about developing a child’s confidence in their abilities, as well as teaching children the benefits of lifelong learning,” Joanna explained.

“It’s not about test scores per se, it’s about assuring each student that they can learn, through a guided instruction system.”

In more good news for parents, the Kumon System, she explained, involves an extremely competitive tuition rate, as well as individualised learning structure.

“We start-off each student with an individual diagnostic test to see where the student is up-to academically.

“My role as an Instructor, is to then determine what work sheets are suitable for that student.”

From the medical professions in her former life, it was the satisfaction she got in helping others learn, that determined Joanna’s current career.

“I’ve always really enjoyed tutoring, having done some work with students in subjects like English and maths over the years,” Joanna said.

“I’ve also always wanted to run my own business, and this is a system that I know works, so it was the perfect fit,” she enthused.

The new centre is located centrally at Orange at a newly-fitted-out location at Shop 2, 202 Anson Street near the City Centre Loading Zone, with Joanna keen to get her franchise up and running.

“We traditionally use pen and paper, that is how it was established, but we can now offer an online edition of the system, KUMON CONNECT, for those who want to learn remotely.

“Students normally attend twice-weekly, and for our opening in August, we’re offering a two-week free trial for any families that want to learn more.”

Unlike many traditional tutoring schools the aim, she explains, is to establish good learning disciplines that will guide students their whole lives.

“Although we go all the way from pre-school to high school, the focus is more on skills that can help pupils throughout their education,” Joanna said.

“The main aim is to set-up the fundamentals, that’s why I’m so excited about setting-up our Centre,” she concluded.