Sonder now delivering Tailored Learning
Supporting young people to re-engage with learning and find their pathway forward.
Sonder is proud to deliver Tailored Learning, a flexible and personalised program supporting young people in Years 8-12 who are disengaged from school or facing barriers that make regular attendance difficult.
Formerly known as Flexible Learning Options (FLO), Tailored Learning recognises that learning outcomes are closely linked to wellbeing and life circumstances. Through a whole-of-system approach, Sonder works alongside schools, families and community services to help young people reconnect with education, strengthen wellbeing, and plan for positive futures.
What Tailored Learning looks like at Sonder
Tailored Learning is delivered by a multidisciplinary team of Youth Mentors, Coordinators, and Family Peer Practitioners who provide wrap-around support that is trauma-informed and culturally safe.
Each young person is matched with a Youth Mentor who provides one-on-one case management, mentoring, and advocacy. Working together with the young person, their family or carers, and the school, the Youth Mentor develops an individualised plan that reflects strengths, interests, challenges, goals, and support needs.
Learning is designed to be flexible and can take place in many different settings, depending on what works best for the young person, including:
- Within the school
- Community hubs
- Outreach
- Online
- Partnerships with RTOs and TAFE
Support can also continue during the school holidays to help maintain momentum and connection.
Tailored Learning also supports young people to explore career interests and plan meaningful transitions into further education, training, apprenticeships or employment – building confidence, capability, and sustainable pathways forward.
Integrated wellbeing and family support
Tailored Learning at Sonder is strengthened by our expertise as a trusted provider of mental health and support services across South Australia.
For more than 30 years, Sonder has supported children, young people, and families through evidence-based programs spanning mental health, homelessness, Aboriginal health, alcohol and/or other drugs, work and study, community health and disability. This breadth allows us to respond to the whole picture of a young person’s life – not just what is happening in the classroom.
Where needed, young people can be supported to access Sonder’s integrated wellbeing services through clear and supported referral pathways. This may include mental health and therapeutic supports, healthy lifestyle programs, and youth-specific services through Sonder’s headspace centres in Adelaide, Edinburgh North, Marion and Onkaparinga. These centres provide a welcoming, one-stop-shop for support with mental health, physical health, alcohol and other drugs, and work or study concerns.
Through Tailored Learning, families and carers can also access support through Family Peer Practitioners, who bring lived experience and a strengths-based approach to help families navigate services, build supportive routines, and stay connected to their young person’s learning and wellbeing journey. Engagement is guided by consent, cultural safety, and what works best for each young person and family.
Accessing Tailored Learning
Tailored Learning is available to young people:
- In Years 8-12.
- Enrolled in a South Australian Government school.
- Assessed as Category 2 or above under the Tailored Learning Framework.
- Who are disengaged or at risk of disengaging from education.
All referrals are made through the young person’s school.
If you believe Tailored Learning could support a young person, we encourage you to start a conversation with the school’s Year Level Coordinator or wellbeing team.
For enquiries, contact tailoredlearning@sonder.net.au.