Questions parents ask before enlisting a recruit

Yes. The entrance exam is seven missions over seven days, and you don't enter a card to start it.

We ask for a parent's email address so we can send each day's mission. When your child finishes Day 7 we'll show you what membership looks like. If it isn't for you, do nothing and nothing is charged.

No. "Entrance exam" is part of the story: your child is a recruit earning their clearance at the Academy. Nobody fails.

A short opening quiz sets the difficulty, then every child who completes the seven missions graduates with a certificate. It isn't a school test or a formal assessment, and it doesn't produce a grade.

About 15 minutes. One mission unlocks per day, so once today's mission is done there's nothing more to binge.

Nothing is lost. Missions stay open once they unlock, so your child can pick up where they left off and finish in their own time.

Avero Academy is built for ages 8 to 12. Missions are levelled across Years 2 to 7, so a keen 7-year-old or a 13-year-old won't be out of place.

It's built not to. The opening quiz and your child's year level place them on one of three difficulty levels, so a Year 2 recruit and a Year 7 recruit get different puzzles.

Missions are story-led puzzles, not worksheets, and no one is marked or ranked against other children. If the level feels wrong for your child, tell us and we'll help.

The difficulty level comes from how your child actually answers the opening quiz, alongside their year level, so a strong student can land on a harder level than their year would suggest. If it still feels easy, let us know. That's exactly the feedback we use to tune the missions.

Missions are designed for a child to do on their own. Cal, the Academy's guide, reads each briefing aloud, so strong reading isn't required to follow the story.

Younger recruits in Years 2 and 3 may want a grown-up nearby for the trickier clues.

Missions are aligned to the Australian Curriculum for Years 2 to 7. Each one practises a thinking skill that sits underneath STEM subjects: pattern recognition, scientific thinking, engineering design, computational thinking, mathematical problem solving, critical thinking and creative problem solving.

All of our content is created in consultation with teachers and homeschool educators.

It works alongside school. It isn't tutoring, it doesn't replace classwork, and we don't promise a change in marks.

Missions do run on a screen, so the honest answer is yes, about 15 minutes of it a day. One mission unlocks per day, and the puzzles need real working out, usually with paper and a pencil. Mission sheets can also be printed.

No. There is no chat and no advertising. Your child never creates an account, and no one can contact them through Avero Academy.

As little as we can. We hold the parent's email address. Alongside it we store your child's first name, their difficulty level and which mission they're up to. That's how the mission emails greet them by name and send the right mission next.

Their answers stay in the browser on your own device. Your child never has an online account or a password. The detail is in our Privacy Policy, which includes a section written for kids.

No. Every email goes to the parent's address, and every email has an unsubscribe link.

A phone, tablet or computer with an up-to-date web browser, the sound turned on so your child can hear Cal, and paper and a pencil. There's no app to install. A printer is optional.

Yes. Each child gets their own agent file on the same device, with their own name, level and progress. When they open the missions they choose who's on duty.

Not yet. Progress is saved in the browser on the device your child starts with, so it won't follow them to another device or another browser.

Pick one device and stick with it for the seven days. Private browsing mode, or clearing the browser's data, will erase progress.

Your child graduates and gets their certificate. Then, and only then, we show you membership. There's no automatic sign-up and nothing to cancel.

No. There are two ways to pay and neither has a minimum term.

Monthly membership renews each month until you cancel, and you can cancel any time. A single month pass is one payment for one month, and then it simply stops.

Both are one price per family, not per child. Prices will be published here before membership opens.

Membership hasn't opened yet. Families who want to be first in can reserve a founding member place with a $10 deposit. It comes off your first payment when you join. It's fully refundable: email us any time before that first payment and we'll return it, no questions asked.

I'm the founder of Avero Academy. I graduated from school with a 99.95 ATAR, and I've loved STEM for as long as I can remember.

School worked for me on paper. But chasing a high ATAR taught me that the system rewards getting the right answer far more than it builds the skills that matter most later on: solving problems you haven't seen before, thinking critically, and trying again when the first idea fails.

I built Avero Academy to give young people those skills early, and to show them that STEM can be something they look forward to.

All of our content is created in consultation with teachers and homeschool educators.