Meet The Team

Tim Rutherford

I'm Tim - a facilitator, playmaker, and game designer.

I’ve been involved in self-directed learning spaces for over five years.

I spent three years at The Garden in Bristol, the UK’s longest running self-directed learning community. The Garden is a learning community for ages 5-16.

I co-founded, developed and honed the learning programme The Bristol Learning Community. Over those three years I blended the best tools of self-managed learning and agile learning, and created some of my own in order to develop a methodology for helping young people aged ten and over evaluate their life holistically, tap into desire, create a roadmap to action, evaluate where, how and what success will look like, and then through weekly meetings of intention-reflection cycles take steps towards those goals.

Over the years I’ve also created and ran Makerspace projects, taught Wild Maths and recently facilitated six months of deschooling workshops for parents in Bristol.

I’m both a qualified maths teacher and mechanical engineer.

Jodie Schram

I bring deep experience from my years in the NHS, where I’ve worked to build high-trust, high-performing teams and supported people at every level to grow with confidence and clarity. I’m skilled in designing personal development plans that balance structure with autonomy, helping individuals stay accountable to their goals while maintaining a strong sense of agency.

My background includes extensive work with action learning sets — creating safe, reflective spaces for people to share challenges, ask powerful questions, and uncover their own solutions. I believe in the power of community, curiosity, and co-created accountability.

I’m experienced in providing honest, practical feedback on career progression and workplace cultures, helping people understand what different industries and roles really look like day to day.

I’m excited to bring this approach into self-directed education spaces, offering young people the tools and support they need to navigate learning in a way that feels meaningful, empowering, and sustainable over the two-day residential.