A workshop for educators, youth workers and parents who want to bring more nature connection into the everyday. All levels of experience & confidence are welcome.

Despite it's known necessity for our wellbeing, nature can often feel like a luxury – something for the weekend at best. The wilderness seems even more remote. But we are nature, London is a forest, and you can learn to work with the wild (both in you, and in nature) in the everyday.

Join us to

• Learn how to work with nature as a practical, inspiring and restorative teaching partner.

• Get helpful new models and tools 

• Explore and troubleshoot common practical challenges to working with nature

• Experience multiple different approaches to seeing the wild in the everyday

• Meet supportive allies and exchange expertise

• Reinvigorate your relationship with the soil you are made of

There is abundant evidence of the value and power of partnering with nature. Yet we know it can often feel so far away – especially for those of us who live and work in schools, offices, towns and cities.

From decades of working with educators of all kinds we know the challenges: it's not obviously examined nor is it on the national curriculum; common approaches can seemingly require a lot of time, money and risk assessments; qualifications are costly etc.

We also know that young people aren’t always keen. Would you rather game or garden? Play sports or take mindful walks? In the words of a teenager we recently worked with "I'm only a small person, I just don't want to spend all weekend carrying a heavy bag around the countryside". 

But can we really survive the 21st Century without better embracing nature's power? Is your educating really as good as it could be if you ignore the outdoors? 

At The Visionaries we believe we need to ask these questions as if our life depended on it. We don’t need wilderness pornography. We don’t need to wait for a new curriculum. If we play smart, we could all start to think, teach and act more like healthy diverse ecosystems do, today.

What's on offer?

A multi-faceted, full day exploration of how to work with everyday nature. The day is delivered at our offices at School 360 & nearby locations, with a mix of indoors and outdoors sessions. We will guide deep enquiry to better understand how we currently relate to 'wildness', explore and experience supportive maps and models for bringing nature more into your practice, and through group coaching plan how to apply the training to our everyday context.

Your Facilitator

David Heinemann

David is a Dad, executive coach, group facilitator and differently-abled personal trainer.

Inspired by the Aboriginal message "if the land is sick, you are sick", David is deeply interested in the intersection between health and ecology. He also believes we need less management and more leadership - at all levels - if we are to actually survive the coming decades.

David has worked with hundreds of schools, educators and social innovators via projects including Roots and Enrol Yourself, was co-founder of Index on Censorship’s global fellowship for Human Rights Defenders and has been a learning partners to clients including Sport England, NESTA and the Young Foundation.