The Facilitators
Our three experienced facilitators, Cedar, Amelia and Conor, provide unobtrusive assistance and guidance to enable the young people to follow their interests and passions. The facilitators help to hold a safe and nurturing environment through their care and emotional support. This enables positive relationships and honest communication to be developed throughout the community.
AmeliaHello, I’m Amelia. I came to the Green House after completing a PGCE wanting a different experience and that is what I got! I thrive through collaboration and responding to the young people’s imaginations and ideas. At the Green House I enjoy supporting with making things, planning events, having big-picture chats about the world with cups of tea, playing Dungeons and Dragons, supporting young people to bring longer-term goals to life and being generally silly.
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ConorConor has been working as a facilitator at the Green House since December 2022. He loves to engage in his passions, especially music and movement. Conor brings experience from capoeira, a Brazilian martial art which combines elements of dance, acrobatics, fight, flexibility and music.
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CedarHi I am Cedar! I am a facilitator and in the holding team too, I also play a bridge role between the two teams and I am mom to two awesome humans who are part of the Green House learning community, phew?!?!
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The holding team
Our holding team is responsible for the strategic direction of the project, operational management and decisions about how the community is run. They also manage the application and joining process, so will be your first point of contact if you get in touch. The Holding team is supported by our finance administrator Claire Thomas, who oversees the invoicing and book-keeping for the project.
AmyHi I’m Amy. I have always been involved in community arts projects and creative education including education research projects such as 5x5x5=Creativity.
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NicolaHello, I’m Nicola, I have been part of the holding team since 2018 I have two children in the project who are 8 and 11 and my eldest has been attending since she was four. The project currently operates from an area of land at our home in Bitton.
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CedarI love the vision and bigger picture of the Green House. I enjoy supporting parents, mapping out our vision and running training days for the facilitators.
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Families
The facilitator and holding teams rely on the support of the families in the community The support they provide includes some of the following: site maintenance, attending site days or helping out with jobs adhoc, bringing and sharing passions as an offering with the children as part of our library of friends, ordering resources, fixing and improving our digital tech, redesigning our website, creating and maintaining finance systems and much more.
Library of Friends
We borrowed this lovely phrase from a project called Free We Grow in the London ( thank you to them! ) These are people who come and share with us their miriad of passions with the children, for instance if one of the children, some provide regular offerings and some maybe just come for one session.
External support and guidance
The Green House is part of a much bigger movement of education change makers and as such has always sort to learn and gain support from these larger organisations for example
Freedom to Learn : The Freedom to Learn network explores educational alternatives and promotes human-centred and rights-respecting practice in education in the UK; advocating for more voice and choice for children and young people in how they learn.) Agile Learning Centres: The Agile Learning Centers model is a framework for learning communities rooted in trust, self-direction, and collaboration. |
We have benefited hugely from the support of members of the NYC ALC. We benefit from support sessions with other professionals including those in educational psychology and facltator training.
We undertake training in First aid, Safeguarding and Diversity, equality and inclusion among other things.
We also learn a huge amount from the many similar communities that make up an ever growing network of self-directed education settings.
We undertake training in First aid, Safeguarding and Diversity, equality and inclusion among other things.
We also learn a huge amount from the many similar communities that make up an ever growing network of self-directed education settings.
Other communities
There is an ever growing network of similar communities that share our values. Where possible we look to create connections between our projects, connecting the young people and facilitator teams.
The Garden
http://www.thegardenbristol.org/ Based in Bristol, The Garden is a self-directed learning community for school-aged home educated young people. The Lighthouse Project https://lighthouselearningproject.org.uk/ The Lighthouse is a self-directed and consent-based learning project for children 7+ based at The Forest Garden in Cardigan, West Wales. Soulcraft learning community https://www.facebook.com/soulcraftlearning/ Consent-based, creativity hub for electively home educated 9-14s in Stithians, Cornwall The Meadow Bath The Meadow is a rich and creative environment, nurturing interests and natural learning through play and collaboration. We are a consent-based, self-directed learning community where young people aged 5-14 can play freely, explore with curiosity and practise community in a wild space. |
Inspiration and resources
- Free to Learn by Peter Gray - Drawing on evidence from anthropology, psychology, and history, Gray demonstrates that free play is the primary means by which children learn to control their lives, solve problems, get along with peers, and become emotionally resilient.
- Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Khon - by switching the dynamic from doing things to children to working with them in order to understand their needs and how to meet them.
- Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work by Akilah S. Richards - Richards examines the ways that her relationships to blackness, decolonization, and healing work all combine to form relationships and enable community-healing strategies rooted in an unschooling practice
- Changing Our Minds and A Different Way to Learn two brilliant books by Dr Naomi Fisher bring together research, theory and practice on learning. They include interviews with influential thinkers in the field of self-directed education and examples from families alongside practical advice. These essential guides will give you an understanding of why self-directed education makes sense, how it works, and what to do to put it into action yourself.
- Freedom to Learn Podcast Series - celebrating freedom, autonomy and social justice in education
- Hannah Frankman Podcast - Conversations on education, lifestyle, personal development, and freedom — all in ardent pursuit of a life well lived.
- Reality vs Expectation: The Home Ed Guide You Didn't Know You Needed - Neurodivergent mother of a home educating family gives an honest view of the journey both for your children and more importantly you, as you unlearn traditional schooling and embrace a new way to learn.
- Collage Podcasts - Choosing to home educate is a big decision. Our podcasts are here to help you consider your options, whether you are thinking about taking the plunge or well into your home school journey.