Educational pod fills gap

A creative, engaging and safe place for children to learn and explore has been created by a husband-and-wife duo in the heart of Port Kennedy.

The idea for The Learning Pod was born when Teisha and Dan Hoyer saw an educational gap that wasn’t being filled for children needing a little bit more than what they could get from school.

“My husband and I have fostered for seven years and we noticed that every child had something unique,” Ms Hoyer said.

“Then we went through a stage where we found out our own children were gifted and talented and it was really hard to find something that was able to support them.”

The Learning Pod started as a pop-up shop in December with more than 120 students registered for tutoring within the month and consists of multiple circular structures that can move to create different room configurations for a variety of workshops and one-on-one learning.

“We have a unique learning structure with a cluster of special needs specialists and we find there are a lot of families that just don’t know what to do or they are on waiting lists for over a year,” Ms Hoyer said.

“We want The Learning Pod to be a place where kids can come and educate themselves in a fun way and keep them challenged and excited.”

The educational model is so unique that the managing director for stationery giant Staedtler flew over to see it in person.

“We wanted to make a difference to the community and we felt the only way it was going to happen was if we did it ourselves,” Ms Hoyer said.