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Forest

The Wildling Way

The Wildling Way

Children are blessed with an innate desire to learn even from before they are born. The insatiable curiosity with which they experience the world from birth is not something that has to change as they grow.

Modern education is set up with such a narrow set of success criteria, it allows no room  burning curiosity and desire to experience rather than “be told”. Not even room to "have an idea" said one child!

We believe that children are also born with a “blueprint” of ancestral wisdom deep within their psyche, generational knowledge somewhere deep in their subconscious, waiting to be awakened. These two factors shaped the way we designed The Wildling Tribe to be experiential and exploratory, driven by children’s inner knowing and innate desire to learn, explore and experience.

While our sessions and award program do have necessary structure, we advocate for autonomous and self-directed learning experiences and so mentorship is at the forefront of what we do, rather than instruction.

We aim to support children to foster self-awareness, a connection to each other and our planet and a sense of belonging and self-worth which is why we employ a holistic approach to all we deliver.

We created the Wildling Way Code – a set of affirmations to remind us of the importance of humanity's role in creating a beautiful and compassionate world.

Our Mission

Wisdom preserved unchanged for generations passed down through stories and in tribes is in danger of disappearing forever through lack of connection and separation from self, each other and our beautiful planet.

As societal systems start to crumble and fall, we believe that now is the time to not only imagine a more beautiful world, but to support our children to develop the skills, awareness, wisdom and confidence to create that world for themselves.

We aim to build a bridge to wisdom and knowledge perhaps initially passed on around a crackling campfire as a wise old woman showed her grandchildren how to cook foraged food and weave baskets, or from an elder to his apprentice as he gathered plants to make medicine for his tribe.

We hope to instil deep gratitude, empathy and appreciation of and for the world around us into the heart and soul of every child we are fortunate enough to meet!

After all, we are sure you will agree that our children are the most precious gifts of all. Let's give our kids a chance to create the more beautiful world we all know is possible.

Our Pedagogical Approach

We are often asked why we allow young children to freely use “dangerous” tools, explore the woodland without supervision and at times out of adults’ direct line of sight, come up close to our fire pit and take what appear to be unmanaged risks

At the Wildling Tribe, we do things a little differently to most traditional forest schools or outdoor providers. This is why:
 

Since time began and in tribes throughout the world, real and, at times, life threatening risk has been and is a part of every day life.

 

As soon tribal children can move independently, they are taught these real life risks through experience and modelling, through stories and witnessing the consequences of not appreciating the dangers and risks, rather than having these risks removed or managed so that they are no longer real risks or dangers at all. In most cases, living in close connection with the land and all that shares it is full of risks and potential dangers that cannot be removed as they form the very fabric of these people’s culture, environment, diet and way of life.

 

We almost always find that these children - the ones exposed to real risk - are more confident, have higher self-esteem, and in general have a better quality of life than those who grow and develop in an environment where risks and dangers are managed before children get a chance to even be aware of them.

To read about our approach in more detail, click on the PDF file below.

The Wildling Tribe's Pedagogical Approach

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