An Action Learning Set for Teenagers
A six-month pilot project for any teenager curious about learning, exploring projects, and developing life skills.
A small, supportive space for teenagers to reflect on their learning, set goals, explore challenges, and grow together.
Each week, participants meet in a guided group to think deeply, ask questions, and support one another in making progress on personal projects and goals.
What It Is
A facilitated weekly reflection group for teenagers.
We meet once a week in a small group with an experienced facilitator. Each session helps young people:
Reflect on their week’s learning and progress
Receive feedback and encouragement from peers
Set clear intentions for the week ahead
Explore challenges in a supportive, questioning environment
The group is designed to build habits of self-reflection, peer learning, and authentic connection.
How It Works
Group size: 4 teenagers (ages 13–16).
Facilitator: An experienced mentor with years of experience supporting young people to develop, reflect, and achieve their goals.
Each week:
Everyone shares a brief reflection on their progress and next steps.
One or two people bring a specific challenge to explore with the group.
We will meet on a Sunday evening for two hours.
The Group Process
When someone shares a challenge, the group supports them by:
Asking open, curious, and challenging questions.
Listening carefully before offering advice.
Sharing reflections, resources, or ideas — only if invited.
This process builds a culture of mutual respect, curiosity, and thoughtful feedback, where young people learn from each other as much as from the facilitator.
Before We Begin
Before the first group session, each participant will have a one-hour individual meeting with the facilitator to co-create a 12-week learning plan.
Together, we’ll explore:
Past interests and current motivations.
Future goals and directions.
What success means to them.
Ways to measure progress that feel personal and achievable.
Session Structure
Week 1: Sharing & Listening
Each participant shares their learning plan (up to 30 minutes each), explaining what they want to explore over the next twelve weeks and why.
The group listens, asks questions, and gets to know not just each other’s projects — but each other as people.,
This lays the foundation for meaningful feedback and connection.
Weeks 2 -13: Action Learning Set (2 hours each)
Each young person gets 15 minutes to share and reflect on their week.
Two people each week go deeper, sharing a specific problem or challenge they’re facing.
Each participant gets to explore a challenge in depth every two weeks, supporting an ongoing cycle of reflection, intention, and action.
A small private Discord channel helps everyone stay connected and continue conversations between sessions.
What is an Action Learning Set?
An action learning set is a small group that meets regularly to help each other think through real challenges. One person shares a problem they’re facing, while the others ask open questions to help them reflect and find their own answers — rather than jumping in with advice. It’s a structured way of learning from experience, building confidence, and developing self-direction together.
The 13 Week Cycle
After 13 weeks, the cycle begins again:
New or refined learning plans (with one-to-one sessions)
A fresh sharing and listening session
Another 12 weeks of action learning sets
This rhythm helps young people develop long-term habits of reflection, peer support, and self-directed growth.
Pilot Project Details
Duration: Six months
Format: Online, weekly sessions + one 1:1 session to create the 12-week plan
Spaces: 4 teenagers only
Cost: Free pilot
Priority: Families from the global majority
Registration: First-come, first-served
About the Facilitator
I’ve been involved in mentoring teenagers and facilitating spaces like this for over five years. I have a background that brings together experience in secondary schools and home education. I co-founded, developed and honed a learning programme for self-directed home educated teenagers whilst at The Garden. Over 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 teenagers 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 to take steps towards those goals.
Who is this for?
This pilot project is for any teenager that would like help and support in their lives. This project would work equally well for home educated teenagers who want to develop their skills to plan their projects and achieve more success, or how to plan and work towards GCSEs outside of mainstream school. It would also work equally well for someone in school who wants support understanding how to balance their school, their studies and the interests they have outside of school, and how to progress outside projects alongside their current commitments.
We support and guide people through projects but on the way will often touch on themes of how to be more agentic, and create more autonomy; how to develop executive function skills and self-confidence; how to navigate relationships, sleep, neurodiversity, self-confidence as these skills, tools, and natural developmental aspects of being a teenager are common to all, whatever their educational background.
These skills and tools not only help young people achieve tangible project goals but also provide a strong foundation for growing up in today’s world.
The Cost
This pilot project is offered free of charge. In return, we aim to explore how our approach supports self-directed learning and personal growth. We gather reflections from young people and families, alongside observations, to understand the programme’s impact. All contributions are treated confidentially and anonymised if shared, and participation requires consent to ensure safety, privacy, and ethical practice.