The Facilitators
Our three experienced facilitators, Amelia, Lois and Hakay 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.
Amelia
Hello, 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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Lois
Hi, I’m Lois! I have been involved in the world of Self Directed education for around 5 years, joining the Greenhouse at the end of 2019. I like learning alongside young people as we explore a line of interest, curiosity or play. I enjoy using Agile Learning practices for supporting young people to develop ideas and work towards goals, whether these are daily or spanning over weeks.
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Hakay
Hi, I’m Hakay! I started out coaching football (soccer) in the U.S., where I grew up, and moved to the UK at 17 to study sport and football coaching, including sport psychology and coaching sciences at Bournemouth University. Over time, I realised I was most passionate about supporting young people’s personal and emotional growth, which led me into mentoring. I currently work and volunteer with a charity called Journeyman UK supporting teenage boys.
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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.
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.
I am passionate about educating in a way where children really feel seen, heard and held and where they have the freedom and safety to really know and fully be themselves. I believe that this needs to exist in a consistent community so that the children and their families can experience a real sense of belonging; hence my involvement in the Green House. |
JennyHi, I’m Jenny. I joined the holding team in 2024 and I have had children at the Green House since 2018. My background is in science and innovation and I am passionate about creating supportive environments where young people can follow their own creativity and curiosity and become self-motivated learners. It is such a joy to see the different interests and collaborations that emerge when children are free to be themselves.
The other core part for me is that children are respected as equal partners and have a voice in how the project is run. It is so powerful that they can be fully engaged in creating an inclusive space that works for the whole community. |
Advisors to the holding team
AmyHi I’m Amy. I have always been involved in community arts projects and creative education including education research projects such as 5x5x5=Creativity.
My family of 3 children have had the privilege to have been a part of the Green House Education Project since 2016, right from the start of our home education journey. I have been a part of the running of the Green House since 2018. My passions are: consent, freedom, creativity and support in parenting and education; expression and story telling through the arts; herbs, plants, foraging and fostering deep connections to nature and the cycles of life |
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.
I have been part of the Green House from its conception with other amazing human beings, in the middle of 2014. And have played several varying roles in the community since then. Before that I worked for an amazing alternative school in Cape Town, from 2006. I love a good grapple, challenging the status quo and creating a different reality right now that puts relationships at the core. I also love being silly, making people laugh and am known to often have a cheeky glint in my eye! |
Wider community
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 their passions with the children. Some provide regular offerings and some may just come for one session. Recent offerings from our Library of Friends include music and song composition; innovation and engineering; capoeira; Witchin' in the Kitchin' - studying, foraging, growing, and cooking with herbs; and ever popular long-running weekly DnD sessions run by one of our parents.
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.
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.
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 their passions with the children. Some provide regular offerings and some may just come for one session. Recent offerings from our Library of Friends include music and song composition; innovation and engineering; capoeira; Witchin' in the Kitchin' - studying, foraging, growing, and cooking with herbs; and ever popular long-running weekly DnD sessions run by one of our parents.
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.
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.