Huckleberries Wild Learning Community
—Self-Directed Learning—
Huckleberries Wild Learning Community extends our nurture farm provision, offering a self-directed, nature-centred learning alternative to mainstream education. We support children and young people (ages 6–16) who are ready to re-engage in learning but are unable to attend mainstream school full-time or at all.
Our Vision
Our vision is to transform the lives of children and young people struggling with their emotional well-being. We harness the restorative power of nature to cultivate deep interconnection, and inspire a lifelong love of learning and stewardship. Through self-directed learning, our learners develop creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. We embrace Project Thinking, fostering curiosity, empathy, and a growth mindset – helping children find joy in exploring their passions, overcoming challenges and finding their strengths.
Our Approach
Currently, we are working with a small group of children one day a week while we further develop our learning curriculum. Our goal is to expand this to a three-day-week program by the Autumn term. Our Learning Guides encourage learners to take ownership of their education by exploring their interests and passions, suporting them in setting personal learning goals, fostering enquiry, collaboration and problem solving, and encouraging critical thinking and creativity. They act as mentors supporting each child and young persons emotional well-being and social development, and tailoring their learning experiences to meet their needs.
To ensure a supportive transition, our oldest intake is 14 years old. This allows learners time to de-school, immerse themselves in our community, and build the skills and mindset to pursue their chosen qualification pathway if they wish to do so – whether through formal portfolio-based or vocational qualifications.
We are also piloting a flexi-school partnership with local schools, to explore how and if learners can thrive in a hybrid learning environment.
Accessibility & Funding
Social equity is at the heart of our Community. We are actively working to provide full bursaries for children who will thrive in our programme but lack local authority funding or the ability to self-fund.
We expect schools to contribute to fees for children attending through our flexi-school programme. Additionally, we offer some places for children and young people who receive local authority funding through their EHCP or EOTAS pathway, where we can meet their needs. Huckleberries is an Alternative Provision framework supplier to Surrey County Council.
Get in Touch
If you’re interested in learning more, we’d love to hear from you!