Our ‘Why’
As a little girl, I had a vision of a space where kids could come and learn all of the cool things they really wanted to learn. They could be surrounded by like-minded people and have loads of fun making new friends. And in this space, kids could be inspired. They would be able to feel their greatness. They would be able to step away from the boring and ordinary and chase their wildest dreams.
That’s what I wanted as a kid and I know kids out there crave the same.
Although my original vision also involved flying helicopters and learning to scale buildings, a few decades later, my dream has, by and large, been brought to life. Everyday, the amazing Build-A-Mind team work their butts off to help me fulfil my childhood vision. We want to give the dreamers, the inventors and the deep thinkers a fun space to learn, to connect, to pursue their passions, and to grow into the leaders and game-changers they are meant to be.
We were those kids and we work for those kids.
Kerry Pyle
Build-A-Mind Founder and Owner
The ‘How’
What sets us apart from other educational enrichment providers is that we don’t use grades or marks or ranks, or any other tools for comparing the ability levels between children. Our focus is on each student’s unique journey of personal growth.
Through feedback, strategic questioning and guided reflection, we teach children to compare themselves to where they were before – not where they are compared to everyone else.
Build-A-Mind help children place value on:
- How much their skills have improved
- How much more they now understand
- How much deeper they can now think
- How hard they have worked
- How they have overcome obstacles
Understanding the importance of effort, perseverance and resilience is at the heart of nurturing a growth mindset in children. By delivering our workshops through this lens, we are setting children up for life. As they grow older and face greater intellectual or professional challenges, rather than give up, their instinct will be to embrace challenge, revel in the difficulty of finding solutions and enjoy greater fulfilment when they succeed.
The ‘What’
What started with just me and my home studio, has now expanded to have two dedicated learning hubs, nearly twenty staff and a whole host of workshops being offered across the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney.
Our educational enrichment programs are designed for girls and boys that love learning! They range from after-school workshops and school incursions, to special holiday events and parties.
We focus on all the cool stuff like:
- Writing code and developing computer games
- Building, programming and battling robots
- Wiring circuits and creating electronics
- Learning to film stop motion animations
- Investigating chemical reactions
Our workshops are STEAM-based meaning that we blend elements of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics to give students the full breadth of skills and modes of thinking that are crucial to living, working and thriving in the 21st century. What’s more, programs are inquiry-based which means that children can approach problems in their own unique ways and are able to pursue their ideas at a pace that suits them.
