Mind Lab NZ has now made the exciting and successful Mind Lab programme even more accessible to NZ children. A new method to allow schools to use their own teachers to deliver the Mind Lab programme has recently been announced by Managing Director for Mind Lab NZ – Mr Jarrod Beaman.

Said Mr Beaman, “When we embarked on releasing the Mind Lab programme to NZ schools we had a firm belief that the best way in which to teach the programme was by training up our own teachers and they would then visit schools and teach groups of children during the normal course of the school week. However, as we have spoken with and visited more and more schools it became apparent that schools were extremely keen on the Mind Lab programme but had difficulties in funding the programme from within their school budget. This in turn has led to a number of schools simply unable to introduce Mind Lab to their school.

Our objective for NZ was always to have every single child within NZ between the ages of 5-14 having participated in or participating in the Mind Lab programme. We now believe that by allowing schools to use their own teachers to teach the programme this will be a significantly more affordable approach to introducing Mind Lab into all schools and making the programme much more accessible to all children.

We also have some great teachers in NZ more than capable of delivering the Mind Lab curriculum and who are passionate about developing children’s thinking skills. We will still provide our own teachers to schools, who may not have their own teachers available to teach the programme, but there are now options available and the costs no longer need to be an issue”.

So what does this mean for schools? Under this new system it will operate similar to a license in that schools will be provided with all the necessary resources to teach the programme. Mind Lab NZ will also train teachers through a comprehensive 40hour training programme prior to a school commencing the teaching of Mind Lab. This training may be facilitated after hours, in weekends or during the school holidays to minimise disruption to the normal school teaching calendar.

Throughout the school year, Mind Lab will facilitate numerous observation and feedback sessions for Mind Lab teachers in which they will also be assessed to ensure that the Mind Lab programme is maintained to the highest quality standards and is following the prescribed lesson plans consistently.

And what will it cost the school? Since Mind Lab will no longer have the costs to recruit, train and pay teachers, the cost of the programme becomes much more affordable. In many cases the cost per child will be reduced to around 50c per lesson or only $21 per year per child over 42 lessons. Of course there will be some initial costs for the use of Mind Lab resources necessary to deliver the lessons but these will be minimal.

Furthermore, Mind Lab is encouraging schools to combine forces in their cluster groups as this will enable them to potentially share some costs for resources and allow schools to share Mind Lab teachers if required, making the programme even more cost effective!!

Mr Beaman added, “Mind Lab is the newest and most comprehensive thinking skills programme available to schools in NZ. It is thorough, has solid academic support and has lasted the test of time. The programme is now being facilitated in over 40 countries and with more than 2,000,000 children having participated in it. NZ schools can be assured that this is not a fad and will deliver the results and quality education to all children with all levels of ability”.

For more information, please contact;

Jarrod Beaman, Managing Director, Mind Lab NZ

Ph – 021 741 886 or email jbeaman@mindlabnz.co.nz