How it Works

• Residential: We start each term with a two day in-person residential. This is a chance for the group to bond, build trust and and relax together. Accommodation, food and basic activities are included. We will facilitate a weekend of workshops designed to create a learning plan for each individual young person for the term.

• Online Group Calls: Weekly two hour sessions where everyone checks in, learns new tools, and shares challenges and wins. This is a space for skillsharing and peer problem-solving, for practicing giving and receiving feedback.

• 1:1 Mentoring: A weekly one hour call with your facilitator to shape your personal learning journey.

• Capstone Showcase: Each term ends with a chance to present what you’ve learned, created or discovered — young people share their progress in whatever way feels right: a video, presentation, artwork, podcast or performance to the wider community of peers and parents.

The Structure of The Year

Term One - Intention-Reflection Cycles and Showcasing your Project

In the first term we develop the foundational skills that we will use throughout the whole project. We will co-design a learning plan for each young person and they will self-select one of their goals to work intentionally towards. We will use planning tools to create a roadmap for that goal that ends with a showcase event at the end of the year where learners present their work in whatever medium or format they wish.

Term Two -How do you live as teenagers in place with agency?

At the end of term one we will provide the young people with the broad theme that we will be exploring in our second residential. We will explore what they see in the world that they wish to change in their local community and spend the weekend helping them design a small project to make change possible, this inquiry will explore place, belonging, ecology, and community. Teens co-create the direction of this work, but we support them in bringing in local people and partners to help, learning project planning, creative expression, and community engagement along the way. This term will end with each learner delivering a project in community and then creating a presentation in the final week to share with the other young people.

Term Three - How do we share our changemaking with the wider world?

In this term we will be creating a video, a zine and a presentation collectively of all the projects we ran last term. We will tap into people’s skills in art, video creation, music making, fundraising, project planning, presenting, public speaking and more. We will think about what festivals, conferences, and local events we can attend over the summer to share the work that we have done. We will recognise that not only was the work we did in our communities in term two a force for good, but by leveraging our network and working as a learning community and sharing our work collaboratively we can be a force for good for changing societies views on youth and their worth in society.

Why Residentials And Online?

This offering blends the best of my discoveries over time. Teenagers need community, hence why we are meeting together at the start of every term for an intensive two day residential. During this time as well as create learning plans and setting out our goals with mentor support we will be getting to know each other, building friendships and the foundations of our online community.

Every week in the first term we will meet online as a group for two hours to go through an open intention-reflection cycle together. By working with the garage door up like this we create accountability partners, but also give the young people opportunities to give each other feedback and advice to help push peers forward on the project. However, psychological safety is a key part of reflecting on a project for growth for many teenagers and so we will meet more intimately once a week for an hour to provide mentor support one to one in an environment that is safer for some to open up about their plans, development goals and struggles towards achieving these.

Our Aim?

This programme is designed to create space for teenagers to think holistically about their life. We will encourage them to think broadly about their development plans and goals, including friendships, family, life goals, hobbies as well as academic successes, whilst developing systems thinking approaches to how these all interlink together to create a good life.

We want young people to feel empowered to make a change in their learning community and recognise the agency they have in the world. We want them to learn that the best way to make a difference is in community with others, whether in person where you live or online.

Our wish is that every young person leaves with a clearer sense of who they are, what they care about and what they want to do next, with the knowledge that they have the skills and capacities to move towards those goals confidently - all while feeling supported by peers and mentors.

What We Offer

As a team we offer three years of experience of creating self-directed learning programmes with teenagers and years of working in a corporate environment as a champion for creating high functioning teams that emphasises individual agency.

• Experience a broad range of tools for planning, developing goals, setting intentions and reflecting.

• Experience in creating a “thinking environment” for others - active listening and attentive feedback.

• Experience sharing failure in a safe and welcome environment.

• Developing confidence in your capacity, a growth mindset, and a sense that you can act agentically in the world.

• Experience designing a showcase for your project and delivering it to your community.

• Experience co-designing a community initiative and leading a small-scale project for change.

• Experience presenting your work to the wider community and being a champion for change.

• An online community that will be lightly moderated by facilitators but will be mostly for the teenagers to communicate.

Our Commitments

• A safe, respectful environment for every young person.

• Facilitators with experience in self-directed education, co-design, project planning methodologies and community-building,

• Honest, open communication with families at every step.

• A consent-based educational experience.

Who Is This For?

• Self-directed, curious young people aged 13–18 who want to explore ideas, build skills and connect with others.

• Young people who feel passionate about making changes to the world and being a force for good.

• Young people who are confident enough to take on big dreams (when enough support and guidance has been scaffolded in).

• This programme is designed for self-motivated, self-directed young people. It may not be suitable for those who have just left school.

• Those who value agency, respect, community and real-world learning.