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Alma Forest School

place Spain + 1 more

Education for a people-yet-to-come

Rather than presupposing what education should ‘produce’, we offer a space where children have the chance to explore, come alive and feel at home. Through a focus on radical empathy, consent-based teaching practices and bioregionalism, we hope to enable young people to imagine other futures. We are a space where adults can be vulnerable and young people feel empowered.

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2019

Established

40

Children

1

Countries
Target group
Students
Updated
November 2021
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

The school was born out of a lack of alternative education options in the south of Spain and has since developed into a project that aims to develop a model of education that transgresses any dogmatic approach to what a school can and should be. Hopefully, we will be able to make this model of education available to more families by opening further small schools in the future.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

In practice, this kind of education is inherently unpredictable. Our students take the lead in generating questions and topics to investigate. One month, we will spend much of our time at the beach while other months are spent dwelling on the origins of life and what the future holds. We gravitate towards the natural world around us but don’t shy away from the abstract. Our students spend time developing their academic skills in workshops in order to access ideas and share their understanding. They spend a good portion of their time in school developing their own self-directed projects and studies. We value play, unstructured time and opportunities to form strong relationships.

How has it been spreading?

From our humble beginnings, we have become a destination school with people from around the world moving to the area to enrol their children. Increased enrolment has also allowed us to offer subsidized spaces for families that could not otherwise afford a private school.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

We are always happy to share our ideas and help others wanting to create spaces in which children can thrive. Get in touch and talk to us. Another good starting point is to spend time visiting and talking to schools that do things differently in your local context. Ultimately, slow down, learning can be something beautiful once the pressure of performance and comparison with levels is abandoned.

Spread of the innovation

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