About Our Academy
Innovate Forge Academy helps children and young people develop practical capability, confidence and agency through connected, project-based learning.
01 · What is Forge Academy?
Innovate Forge Academy is a learning academy for children and young people, building on the experience of Innovate Technology & Robotics Academy.
We bring together technology and AI, innovation and design, communication and leadership, and entrepreneurship and future readiness in one connected educational model.
Through hands-on projects, coaching and mentoring, students explore their interests, develop practical capabilities, work with others and learn to turn ideas into meaningful contributions.
02 · Why do we exist?
We believe education should develop more than subject knowledge or technical proficiency. Young people also need opportunities to think independently, communicate their ideas, work with others, exercise judgement and discover what matters to them.
03 · Where have we come from?
Innovate Forge Academy grows from the practical technology, robotics and computer science education of Innovate Technology & Robotics Academy. The expanded academy adds connected opportunities in innovation, communication, leadership, entrepreneurship and future readiness.
Our foundation
Technology, robotics, coding and computer science education.
Our expanded academy
Technology, innovation, communication, leadership and entrepreneurship.
04 · How do we teach?
Students learn through practical projects, guided experimentation, constructive feedback and reflection. They investigate questions, make and test ideas, apply what they know in meaningful contexts, and improve through thoughtful iteration.
How students learn
Explore · Build · Apply · Master
How students are supported
Coaching · Mentoring · Pastoral Care
Intended outcomes
Founder-approved methodology: Explore · Build · Apply · Master remains the academy’s authoritative learning progression.
05 · How do we support students?
Our Growth & Care Framework brings together three complementary approaches: coaching helps students develop their thinking through thoughtful questions, practice and constructive feedback; mentoring encourages them to explore their interests, strengths and future possibilities; and care creates a respectful, inclusive and supportive learning environment where every student is valued.
Proposed educational philosophy
At Innovate Forge Academy, learning is about more than mastering technology or completing projects. Through coaching, mentoring and a supportive learning environment, we encourage young people to discover their strengths, develop confidence, build meaningful relationships and take ownership of their learning.
Learn with purpose. Grow with guidance. Create with confidence.
Coaching
Our educators use thoughtful questions, encouragement, goals, constructive feedback, reflection and practical challenges to help learners develop independent problem-solving skills.
How it works: A coding coach guides a student to identify and correct a programming mistake rather than simply providing the answer.
Mentoring
Our educators and approved mentors help learners explore their interests, strengths, development goals and future pathways through positive role modelling and age-appropriate guidance.
How it works: A mentor helps a student connect an interest in technology with possible projects, further study or future career pathways.
Care
We aim to create a respectful, inclusive and supportive learning environment where students experience encouragement, belonging and appropriate involvement from parents and carers.
How it works: An educator listens to a student’s concern, responds within professional boundaries and involves appropriate adults when further support or safeguarding action is needed.
06 · What can students explore?
Students can begin in one area and connect ideas, projects and capabilities across other pathways as their interests develop.
Build, code and understand intelligent systems.
Explore pathwayTurn curiosity into practical ideas through creative problem-solving.
Explore pathwayDevelop a clear voice, confidence and collaborative capability.
Explore pathwayApply initiative, leadership and enterprise thinking to meaningful challenges.
Explore pathway07 · What is the Forge Learning App?
Forge is the academy’s digital learning platform. For approved programs, it can support guided learning activities, focused practice, project work and progress visibility. The academy provides the educational experience; the app supports selected parts of that experience.
Explore the Forge Learning App08 · Who is behind the academy?
Gary Gopinathan and Sue John bring forward the educational heritage of Innovate Technology & Robotics Academy as co-founders of Innovate Forge Academy.
Co-Founder, Innovate Forge Academy
Gary brings 25 years of teaching, training and capability building. His founder-provided history records involvement in FIRST LEGO League (FLL) from the early 2000s, membership of the founding team that established FLL in Sydney in 2008, and founding and scaling the Australian VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) programme in 2014.
Historical statements require supporting-document review before final public approval. They do not claim that Gary founded FIRST LEGO League globally or the international VEX organisation.
Co-Founder, Innovate Forge Academy
Sue combines international professional experience with sustained work in robotics, coding and STEM education. Before co-founding the legacy academy in Australia, her published biography records work in intellectual property consultancy and leadership of a training and development division in Singapore.
Sue is identified by the legacy academy as a Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy Certified Instructor. She has taught robotics, coding and technology in primary and secondary settings, contributed to curriculum and classroom delivery, and guided students through many seasons of STEM holiday programs.
Her competition experience includes coaching and mentoring for FIRST LEGO League (FLL), VEX IQ and VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) events at state, national and world-championship levels. She also helped develop early Australian VEX competition activity, school programs, robotics incursions and the academy’s own competition challenges.
Legacy portrait reuse approval remains to be documented for the Forge website.