Barbara Pheloung, a long term Manly resident, has been involved in helping children with learning difficulties for over the past 30 years.

A spry octogenarian, without any thoughts of retirement, Barbara is a visionary. She's an inspiration to everyone who has had ‘an idea', but has felt daunted by its enormity or niggling little feelings of ‘who am I to do this'?

Like many dynamic ideas pioneered and devised by women, Barbara's vision found its birthplace in the home. Troubled by the learning difficulties experienced by her own children, and indeed by up to 15 to 20% of the general population, she began to seek answers. After returning to university and acquiring her Bachelor of Education, she set up her own special treatment centre in her garage on North Steyne which became known as ‘The Beach House'. Her students were often those that the educational system had all but given up on, the strugglers who were so far behind that it didn't seem possible for them to ever catch up. Armed with the belief that any improvement would be a benefit, she set out on her quest to solve the puzzle of these struggling children.

Gathering what knowledge was available and collaborating with other like-minded teachers and therapists, she developed a specialised movement programme that helps to mature the specific neurological immaturities that seem present in most children suffering with learning difficulties. Her results have been both startling and very encouraging.  Thousands of children have been helped by Barbara's program, now christened ‘Move to Learn', and have gone on to complete their education and achieve high standards of literacy and numeracy. Her insights into learning have produced a totally unique approach which has inspired many, and her vision to empower parents, teachers and other involved professionals to be able to significantly turn around the lives of their own children and students has steadily come to pass.