Wilderness College Core Document
Read the full Wilderness College Core Document here.
The Wilderness Project is an Educational Enterprise catering for the needs of young people aged 10-19 who are not flourishing in a mainstream context. These students may find the environment of a large secondary school too overwhelming. They may be individuals challenged by mental health issues or negative experiences of school. They may have specific learning difficulties linked to behavioural issues which have led to them be suspended or excluded from school.
At The Wilderness College, we promote student wellbeing and success through our small group sizes, our support systems, our outdoor context and our innovative curriculum. The close relationship between students and mentors allows our young people to develop true self-efficacy, the belief that they can succeed and accomplish the tasks they set themselves; the power to choose their own future. We are radical in encouraging, respecting and empowering the student voice. Young people learn because they are free to and because they choose to.
Outdoor Experiential Learning - Open Dialogue - Sustainable Practices
Our approach is a radical reworking of the educational paradigm. At the heart of what we do is experiential learning. Through the experiential learning cycle, students are required to take initiative, make independent decisions and be accountable for the results. To ensure that we learn by doing, over 50% of our lessons are taught outdoors; We are a school without classrooms.
The Wilderness College is built on dialogue and thus challenges the existing paradigm of top-down communication:
- Students dialogue with staff and with each other to plan and complete their study.
- Groups of students engage in dialogue to challenge and develop school systems.
- Individuals dialogue with nature through time alone in wild places.
Underpinning all work at The Wilderness College is sustainability. Sustainability is the heartbeat of our school and it represents the fundamental paradigm shift that is needed in our world. We will be a national beacon school in sustainable living and our students will be eloquent ambassadors for a way of life that respects the needs of both people and planet.
How Fellows can help
After 18 months of discussion and debate, we have honed our philosophy into a form that can now be given practical application. Having secured the East Midlands Fellows Award and the support of Maria Arpa at the Centre for Peaceful Solutions, we are now moving to develop our social media platform in preparation to launch our pilot project in autumn 2016 and our application for Free School funding in 2017.
Fellows can help by:
- Providing connections to key players in the field of Alternative Education and Sustainability.
- Responding to our core document.
- Joining our support group.
Project Team
Robert Acworth
An educator committed to developing new paradigms for the 21st C . Create tradition-break convention
Market Harborough