Initiated as a partnership between Bellingen High, the Youth Hub, and the Distance Education Centre at Camden High, the program offers one-on-one, face-to-face appointments with a teacher and potentially the opportunity to work in small groups.

Bellingen High principal Kim Dixon said there are about 40 students eligible to access the program, with numbers evenly split between those being home-schooled and those studying via distance education.

She said parents who home-school their children often look for extra support as subjects become more complex in high school, while students can be in distance education for a variety of reasons, including needing to travel or having a medical condition.

Kim said choosing the right teacher for the program at the Youth Hub was crucial to its success.

"We were very lucky that last year Bellingen High employed Ryan Sullings on a temporary basis. He is music trained and he's retraining in mathematics. And because he's been a casual he can teach a number of different subjects.

"He also builds great rapport with the kids from the outset. He's a very likeable young man."

Ryan also has the benefit of having worked in a similar role at the Northern Territory Open Education Centre, helping remote Indigenous students complete their senior years of high school.

The Youth Hub program started last term, with Ryan stationed in the computer room from 9am to 3.30pm every Monday, taking bookings for hour-long sessions that might be used to figure out how to tackle a history assignment or to explain a tricky concept from the mathematics syllabus.

Ryan also sees Bellingen High students who are on long suspensions, but persuading them to come can be tricky, so he's tended to see more of the distance ed students.

"Half of my funding is through Camden Haven and the other half is through Bellingen High, but it hasn't been an even split of students so far," he said.

"When they're on suspension they do get work that they're meant to complete and they're encouraged to come and see me, but the challenge has been getting them to come."

If he thinks it will help, Ryan is happy to mix things up by jamming in the Youth Hub's music room (he plays bass guitar) or pulling out a chess set for a game.

Attracting more regular students and getting some small group socialising happening are goals that Ryan is working towards this term.

"A lot of the kids going through home-schooling and distance ed have social anxiety or mental health issues," he said.

"Generally speaking, the parents sound keen to take it up when I speak to them on the phone, but it's the kids who don't want to leave the house. The challenge is to break through that barrier and get them to come and meet me."