Free We Grow will be hosting a series of free open afternoons at our home, Dacres Wood Nature Reserve over the next few weeks. Come along and enjoy the reserve and feel the sun set in the woods!
A little bit about me (really us – it includes my wife Isabella Gossett). Our children, Natasha and Jason, were born in the early 80’s. When it was time for them to go to school a little bit of visiting local primaries made me, born in the area around 30 years previously, feel that time had stood still. The classrooms looked identical to what I remember, some were portacabins in the playground. Everyone was shut away, in their classroom, for the majority of the day. Just as I remembered school around 25 years earlier. Continue reading “Reminiscence”
It’s been 5 years since we – five parents: Denise, Emma, Sara, Tom and Lars, and our facilitator Rowan – founded Free We Grow. Each of us had its own motivations and needs when starting the project, however what aligned us all was the belief in children as people worthy of respect and that a free childhood is priceless and this is how we turned it into our vision:
A democratic environment embedded in and connected to the world around us where children can grow socially competent and ecologically mindful and where their innate curiosity and instinct to play and learn is trusted and nurtured.
It is nearly June and here we go pouring onto paper our impressions and observations: as I sit down to reflect on my time as facilitator at Free We Grow, I look at the shelves and find the picture of me dressed in the most unusual fashion (a corduroy dress on top of a pair of ski trousers, really? What was I thinking?) reading the Acorn poem in the meadow with the children acting as Greek chorus, back in the beginning of the spring term. It has been 5 months since the Winter and the cold January when I started working here. I was uncertain then about the steep learning curves of working in a forest and I am now more excited than ever about all the thrilling rides of being immersed in this new journey.
The image I refer to above is the one of the farewell party held for one of the children in the moment we were planting the baby oak tree. Continue reading “Facilitator’s reflections”
All welcome to our spring open day at Dacres Wood! Ahlan wa sehlan! Bienvenidos! Bem-vindo!
On Saturday the 21st of May from 2 – 6 pm we’ll be opening Dacres Wood to the public! Come and visit this little haven in the middle of south London, bring your friends, bring family, bring a picnic!
It is a chance to spend the day in our magical woodland setting with treasure hunts, pond dipping, flying paper airplanes, learning to fix and maintain your bike, clothes swapping, and lots more!
For those interested it will also be a chance to get to know our project – We are a nature based, sociocratic, self-directed learning community of children based in South East London.
See you there!
Email us with questions to: hi@freewegrow.co.uk
I’ve recently realized that magic exists. I think this happened when I found out that a kingfisher visited Dacres Wood. I didn’t see it myself, but Ema, who runs a toddler group at Dacres Wood on Tuesdays, sent us a photo.
It was a Kingfisher. Sleek and proud. Skilled and clever. Beautiful. Calm and present.
Free We Grow invites you to our next Parents’ information meeting that will be held on-site in our venue Dacres Wood Nature Reserve. Date: Sunday 27th of March Time: from 4 to 6 pm.
If you are interested in hearing more about the project, meet our facilitators and some of the founders please email us at hi@freewegrow.co.uk
Before Christmas, we came into Dacres Wood, Rowan, and I, to take down the parachute and organise some materials for the beginning of 2022. I was very excited to be working outdoors and finally experiencing a different kind of dynamic with children in the UK. I had a lot of experience with child-led education in Rio, where I am from, but not so much in London. What a great present and moment in my personal and professional life to be joining Free We Grow!
