Victor Scott Primary's summer programme has been labelled a "success" after showing dozens of at-risk children that learning can be fun.

Many of the 45 children with learning gaps and emotional or behavioural problems have improved since the programme began, a staff member said.

At the start of summer, staff were actively trying to secure funding to run the programme.

Teachers worked to find sponsors and in the end, community and business members kept the project alive. Most notably, XL Insurance's XL Foundation donated $30,000 — half of the primary school programme's cost.

Yesterday a teacher told The Royal Gazette the programme "has been quite a success".

"The staff is hoping this can become an annual programme," she said. "Our parents have been supportive and our children are having fun."

The programme was geared towards students between the ages of seven and 11. Mornings were devoted to academic work; afternoons were spent on traditional camp activities such as swimming and arts and crafts.

The children are now on to the second phase of the programme life skills and character building.

Teachers have reported improvement in many of the students.

"The teachers were pleased," the staff member said.

"Although the data hasn't been completely analysed yet, based on some of the post-test results, students exhibited significant gains in basic numeric and literacy skills.

"That may be attributed to the methods we used. We weren't required to do standard lessons and teachers were able to really think outside the box.

"I think it was also the sizes of the classes that we had the teachers were able to really zone in to the children's needs.

"It was fun learning, so the children were happy learning what they were taught."

Staff thanked the public for their ongoing support, which allowed the summer programme to go forward until next Friday.