Working With The Wild

Regenerative Educator Training #3: How To Partner With The Wild (anywhere)

A workshop for regenerative educators, youth workers and parents who want to bring more nature connection into their everyday youth work and practice. All levels of experience & confidence are welcome.

Friday 1st July 2022, 9am-5pm

Location: School 360, Sugar House Lane, Stratford, E15 2QS

What if you could bring more of the benefits of nature connection into your school, learning programme or home – without having to move everyone to the countryside?

What if you could offer accessible nature connection opportunities to urban children, young people and families – without breaking the bank?

What if climate change was something we could all easily better address – without us all having to become scientists or climate activists?

Join us to…

Learn how to work with nature as a practical, inspiring and restorative teaching partner.
Get helpful new models and tools (besides bushcraft and survival skills)
Explore common practical challenges to working with nature
Experience multiple different approaches to seeing the wild in the everyday
Meet supportive allies and exchange expertise
Reinvigorate your relationship with the soil you are made of

There is abundant evidence of the value and power of partnering with nature. Yet we know it can often feel so far away – especially for those of us who live and work in schools, offices, towns and cities.

From decades of working with educators of all kinds we know the challenges: it’s not examined nor on the national curriculum; common approaches take a lot of time, money, persuasion; urban life is busy; qualifications or contractors are expensive; and then there’s all the risk assessments…

We also know that young people aren’t always keen: gardening or gaming? Mindful walks or sports? How about a whole weekend carrying a heavy rucksack around the countryside? It’s just not every teenager’s idea of fun…

But can we really survive the 21st Century without better embracing nature’s power? Is your educating really as good as it could be if you ignore the outdoors? Without Mother Earth and Father Sky, who are we?

At The Visionaries we believe we need to ask these questions as if our life depended on it. We don’t need wilderness pornography. We don’t need to wait for a new curriculum. We don’t necessarily need to cajole children – if we play smart. And we could all start to think, teach and act more like healthy diverse ecosystems, today.

What’s on offer?

A multi-faceted, full day exploration of how to work with everyday nature. The day is delivered at our offices at School 360 & nearby locations, with a mix of indoors and outdoors sessions. We will guide deep enquiry to better understand how we currently relate to ‘wildness’, explore and experience supportive maps and models for bringing nature more into your practice, and through group coaching plan how to apply the training to our everyday context.

Training Testimonials

“I was truly moved by this experience. It was interactive, personal, filled in the gaps in my knowledge and made me feel much more confident with facilitating in a variety of settings.”
Primary Headteacher

“I found the whole day really powerful. If you want a different approach to engaging with your teams & young people, sign up for this training.”
Secondary School Deputy Headteacher

Friday 1st July 2022

Pricing

The true cost of this training is £110 per participant. However, we charge on a sliding scale to maximise equity of access. whilst ensuring we cover our costs. Please be mindful that if you purchase a package at the lowest end of the scale when you can truthfully afford the standard ticket price, you are limiting access to those who truly need a bursary place.

For Schools/Organisations

£160 – High – For independent fee-paying schools and organisations earning £100k+ a year – this price also widens access for those on lower income
£110 – Standard – For non-fee paying schools, organisations earning between £20-100k a year – this price reflects the true cost of delivering our services
£80 – Low – For schools rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted and organisations earning under £20k a year

For Individuals

Please read about our sliding scale here to decide which ticket to purchase.

£110 – Standard (pays for your place and covers our costs)
£160 – Abundant (pays for your place and supports another)
£80 – Subsidised – (for those in the middle of our sliding scale)
£50 – Bursary (for those at the lower end of our sliding scale)

*please contact hello@thevisionaries.org.uk if you have any further questions or would like to pay via invoice.

Facilitators

David Heinemann – Social Activist, Systems Strategist, Facilitator & Learning Designer: as an accredited psychodynamic facilitator, qualified leadership coach and certified personal trainer David believes in helping (often young) people to help themselves, their communities, their organisations, and our world – preferably in that order. David’s core interest in culture and culture change started as a professional theatre director, but for the past 15 years he felt called to focus on facilitating collective and community intelligence, acting as a learning partner to numerous organisations focused on tackling the systemic challenges and opportunities of our era. Projects have included founding and leading Index on Censorship’s global fellowship for Human Rights Defenders (alongside creating Index’s Youth Advisory Board), launching peer-to-peer educators Enrol Yourself, and supporting the development of NESTA’s Good Help Bad Help project. Other recent partners and clients include Sport England, the Young Foundation, New Citizenship Project, The British Council, Compass and NESTA. In his spare time David runs a grassroots community fitness group as a disabled athlete.