During 2005 The Island was visited a number of times, and extensive interviews with all staff as well as observations of student learning programs in action took place. The staff interviews were completed both formally in a semi structured way as well as part of round table focus group during lunch time and after school staff room conversations. These are reproduced with staff permission. As detailed staff and student interviews were also part of another recent research project (Broadribb, 2004) permission was sought and gained from the responsible authorities to reproduce these with due acknowledgement. While all efforts have been made to ensure the anonymity of all participants, in a small setting like The Island it is inevitable that people who are familiar with the school may be able to identify certain members of staff. The digital photographs of The Island at work used here have also been recently taken by staff. These photographs were taken and used with permission from students and their parents. In particular the researcher has been asked to highlight

• what is the cost/benefit balance of such programs as there is a perception that such programs are expensive to run;
• what has been the impact on VCAL on what they do and
• how is literacy and numeracy linked in practice to the program.