Beyond Blocks Reviews 32

Beyond Blocks ran fantastic workshops in all of our KS2 classes - what a brilliant way to launch our STEM week! The children had an absolute blast and were engaged throughout. There were so many learning opportunities, with different tasks for each phase. Andy’s such a nice bloke and was happy to work around our schedules. Would highly recommend!

We’ve been involved with Beyond Blocks for a few years now. At first I thought it was just a great opportunity to play with Lego and learn a bit of coding. But in actual fact, it’s principles of design, engineering, and now complex coding. My sons confidence has grown through it and it’s the highlight of his week. Andy and team are brilliant!

It’s a week now and the parcel has not yet been received.I did contact Beyond Blocks and Andy arranged for urgent delivery of another parcel but the parcel arrived today and I had to signed and received it.

It's fun using coding. Andy is a good teacher and he pretends he's allergic to wrong builds which is funny!

My daughter loves this club and has learnt so much about coding from her weekly sessions with Andy. He's such a good teacher, allowing the children space to develop their own ideas and learn from their mistakes. I love the fact that the children present their work to their parents/ carers at the end as well, as it gives us a chance to see what they have learnt.

My son and his school friends absolutely love their sessions at beyond blocks. It’s a very creative way to spend their afternoon. He implements lots of what he has done in class at home, creating elaborate projects that blow us away. I would highly recommend these sessions for anyone who loves being creative with Lego as well as of course the robotic aspect.

Andy is a joy to work with. His energy and creative problem solving is incredible. He always puts others first to make it an enjoyable experience to as many people as possible.

Finally got our boost kit organised, thank you!

We attended two sessions and did not have a good experience. The leader needs more understanding of SEN. Will not be returning.

Edited to add:
As you are aware, the particular conversation you are referring to was in the first session and both myself and the other child's mum were in attendance and monitoring their behaviour throughout. The other child wasn't upset and had, in fact, also deleted my child's work - although you didn't address this. Neither of the children were particularly upset by it but you made a point of explaining to my child how someone else may feel in this situation. I didn't complain about what you said as you raised a valid point but I do think this should have been said to both boys. The other child's parent has also written a review on your social media page to say that parents need to check carefully before attending your group if their child has SEN. She had no concerns with how my son was interacting with her child. She was more concerned with how you were treating the children.

My complaint was regarding the way you constantly targeted my child and spoke down to him from the moment we joined. You constantly singled him out and even said that you couldn't start this week's session because you had to wait for him and yet he was sitting ready and it was another child who was making the noises.

The session was an hour and a half long. For the first 45 minutes, my child and his friend worked hard to complete the task together. This is quite an achievement for a child with ADHD. For the next 45 minutes, the children were expected to remain seated even though they had completed the task set. There was no further challenge set and both boys became bored. My child, as I had already informed you, has ADHD and so couldn't sit still for another 45 minutes when the task had already been completed. Each time he got up and came over to speak to me, you interrupted him and made comments regarding his behaviour. He wasn't doing anything wrong. At one point, when his partner wouldn't let him have a turn at coding, he came over to me as he was upset. Immediately you said it was his fault. You didn't give me a chance to deal with the situation and kept interjecting when he was trying to speak to me. You then told the other child's mum that he needed to learn how to deal with such situations if he is going to manage in the real world. You said that my child was immature and needed to learn teamwork. (He's 8 and actually a good team player). The other mum tried to explain that the boys usually work very well as a team (they've been friends for years) but you weren't interested. By this point of the session my son had become very withdrawn and was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room. You then invited all of the parents in to see what the children had been doing. You went around the group, inviting the different pairings to share what they had achieved. My son stood up ready to share but when it got to his turn, you only invited my son's partner over to share. My son kept asking me why and I had no answer for him. You went on about how hard working my son's partner had been and "Everyone give X a clap" - completely ignoring my son. Understandably my son was upset as he had worked collaboratively with his partner to complete the task. Once the sharing time was over, the children all started packing away. My child had been upset so took a moment to compose himself. He then came over to help tidy away. As soon as he put out his hand to pick up a piece of Lego, you turned on him, saying how he should also be tidying away if he wanted to be able to use the equipment. My son had had enough of the way you were treating him and asked why you were being like this and why hadn't he been clapped too when he'd also worked on the task. You were so condescending, telling him that if he wanted a clap, he needed to earn the clap and that perhaps if he'd stayed focused for the whole hour and a half, he could have had one too. You were so patronising and my son just stood there with tears in his eyes, listening to you go on. You were so rude to my son that I decided to step in. I explained that I really wasn't happy with how you were treating my son and that it was cruel to leave him out of the clapping round when he'd worked solidly on the task for 45 minutes (which was a huge achievement given his needs). You agreed that we could have a refund for the remaining sessions as we wouldn't be returning but later that day your wife said that no refunds would be issued as that was part of the terms and conditions. These are the same terms and conditions that state that you will not discriminate - 'Beyond Blocks provide services to all children and are free from discrimination regardless of their... specific needs, learning difficulties...'.
You only refunded the remaining sessions after I went public about our experience.

Andy is very passionate about what he does and it shows in his energy and passionate and encouraging others. My son absolutely loves his sessions.

My daughters (8 and 11) absolutely love these classes, they've attended weekly hour long sessions as well as longer ones during the holidays. Andy challenges them to think through and resolve their coding issues rather than step in and fix it - he keeps their brains working! Most work is done in pairs which helps them develop collaborative working.