On 15 March 2025 we put a banner out on the grass outside Century Square, set a humanoid robot walking on a table next to it, and opened Sheen Academy to the public. It was, in the most literal sense, an invitation: come in, sit down, build something.

Three levels, because children do not arrive at the same place

The academy launched with a deliberately tiered structure rather than one generic "robotics class", because a seven-year-old and a thirteen-year-old need entirely different things from the same hour.

• Intro Class — practical skills, modular programming, logic and the basic physics that makes a machine move.
• Junior Class — the theory of machines and mechanisms, programming adaptability, and the rule-consciousness that comes with working to a spec.
• Explorer Class — project research and planning, logical thinking, AI, and real engineering and programming work.

A learner does not graduate on age. They move up when the work in front of them stops being difficult, which is a slower and more honest measure.

What we set out to teach — and what we actually teach

The subject on the timetable is coding and robotics. The thing that changes fastest in a child is neither. It is the willingness to try something that might not work.

Our academy lead, Theresa Ely-Felino, puts it as building confidence alongside the technical skill: computational thinking, pattern recognition, decomposition and sequencing on one side, and collaboration, communication and critical thinking on the other. A child who can debug a robot has learned something about debugging everything else too.

Growth, faster than the furniture

Within six months of opening, more than 120 students were enrolled. That number is the reason a later entry in this timeline is about expanding the premises — we ran out of desks before we ran out of demand.

Growing that quickly forced an early decision we have kept: classes stay small enough that an instructor knows what each learner is stuck on. Scale happens by adding groups, not by adding chairs to existing ones.

The location was not an accident

Century Square sits over the Grand Canal at Century City, next to the wetlands and Intaka Island. It is a strange place to build a robotics lab and a very good one: it is reachable from most of the northern suburbs, it is safe for parents dropping off on a Saturday morning, and the view out of the classroom window is a reminder that the sensors we teach with are measuring a real world.

Classes run weekly for ages 6 and up. See the current class schedule, or book a trial session to see which level fits your child.