“The Kip McGrath Hunter Story”

It’s important you feel comfortable and confident when making decisions that affect your child’s future.

This is why I want to share my story briefly with you. It’s so you know who I am and where I come from, and so you know I can help your child catch up at school – no matter how far they may be behind now.

My name is Christine Hawkins. And with my husband Ken we help children of all ages catch up on their school work, give them the skills to stay up to date and give them the very best chance of future success, confidence and happiness.

This is not something I fell into though. I always felt I was born to be a teacher.

It all started as a young girl in Pokolbin, near Cessnock in the Hunter Valley. It was one of those tiny Australian outback schools with only one teacher and one classroom from Kindergarten to grade 6. Talk about a composite grade!

As I got older our teacher asked me to help out the younger kids, and the feeling I got from seeing children’s eyes light up when they understood something new ignited a burning passion in me.

After high school I pursued my goal of becoming a teacher. I graduated from Newcastle University with a Teaching Diploma and a Bachelor of Education.

For the next 7 years I taught in different schools in the Hunter Valley while Ken worked at BHP as a mechanical engineer. I loved what I did until I began noticing something I hadn’t picked up on before.

I began seeing how different each child’s needs were. Of course, I knew this from my teacher training. But what was troubling me more was that schools weren’t always doing a great job of helping those who were left behind.

So I began to observe more closely what was happening and discovered that while most schools taught the majority of kids well, some kids simply fell away and struggled.

And what shocked me the most was that most of these kids were very intelligent. But they had a different way of learning, this wasn’t being catered for.

Now, I’m not saying our teachers are doing a bad job. Far from it. But with resources stretched to the limit it’s impossible for schools to cater for children who fall outside the ‘norm’.

The education system caters for the masses, not individuals.
And some children are being left behind to struggle.

Disillusioned and dismayed I walked away from the profession I adored.

But my love of education was not diminished. In fact it was growing stronger.

So after a number of false starts I came across Kip McGrath education who were looking for someone to manage some of their centres in the area. I was drawn to them because they treat each student as an individual and create learning programs that cater for their differences.

And their success rate was astonishing.

The change I was seeing in children was amazing. When students joined they were down on confidence, and before long they’d fall in love with their schoolwork, and were quickly catching up on the other kids in their class.

Not only that, the change in their parents was profound too. Many parents first came to the centre deeply distressed. Their child was struggling at school, they had lost confidence and enthusiasm and the future looked bleak.

But after seeing incredible progress in a short time at the centre the weight literally lifted off their shoulders. Their worries were replaced with optimism and their concerns vanished.

Convinced this was my calling, we purchased the Kip McGrath centre in Raymond Terrace in 2007, and purchased centres in Wallsend and Greenhills soon after. And I’m proud to have helped over 2,000 students create opportunities they were being denied by mainstream education.

Your Next Step

If you are concerned that your child is slipping behind the rest of their classmates then the best thing to do is to have their educational level assessed professionally. This way you will find out exactly where they are at and can take appropriate action if needed.

To see how we can help your child, just click one of the links below for the Centre that is closest to you.

Christine