The Meadow CIC

It felt such a gift to have the whole day to immerse ourselves in planning The Meadow today - reflecting on the past year, considering our young people’s individual needs for the new term and planning our Offerings. We also had a deep dive into our vision and ethos, and everything we wish our community to be. All set against the backdrop of our lovely yurt, with a shared lunch and a deep appreciation and enjoyment of our team and our work. So grateful to be planning another year together and excited for what’s to come! And in a couple of weeks we’ll be back to play in the river on our paddleboards and create more magic ✨

This is such fantastic news for the Edventure Project! 🎉 We know just how hard it is to keep receiving those funding knockbacks and how hard it is to keep projects like ours financially viable and open. We’re so delighted for the whole Edventure community and can’t wait to enjoy their future adventures alongside them 🙌🏼

🎉WE GOT A HUGE YES!!!🎉

After FOUR YEARS of applying for grants, we’ve finally got a big YES! £18,000 of National Lottery funding for two years of Edventures! Yeeehhhhaaaa!!

This is such a huge relief and boost for our small but mighty CiC and it means we can make the project even more accessible for our families.

The funding will help us:

🌱 Create an Edventure Accessibility Fund, continuing subsidised fees for lower-income families and adding an extra 5% to our sibling discount for families who need it.

🌱 Make refreshments and activities at The Hive FREE for two years – including a free Tom’s Tuck Table!

🌱 Create a flexible Emergency Family Fund so we can offer some extra help when one of our families across The Tribe, The Hive or The Compass suddenly finds themselves really needing it.

🌱 Support cooking club, lunches and food (one of our biggest expenses), outdoor activities, our minibus and Edventure On Tour adventures.

🌱 And help us begin creating our new Edventure space – The Grove – next year!

It’s a huge relief, a huge boost and we’re SO proud of our little community and everything we’ve built together. I blubbed and cried when it came through!

Just that someone else has seen what we see every week – that our small but mighty CiC is doing something pretty awesome - that our young people are awesome – and they’ve said YES.

A massive thank you to The National Lottery Community Fund! The National Lottery Community Fund

More accessibility. More adventures. More Edventure 🌳🌱 Kimberley xx

Love the teamwork! It’s one of the values that are important to us here at The Meadow too. Together we can create so much more for our young people. Want to come and be a part of meaningful community? Start the enrolment process now with Debs at [email protected]

I’ve been giving some thought recently to who this account is for.

It’s for The Meadow community, to share in our philosophy on all things education, to support our lives without school and to see a little of what we get up to (although we share more privately within the community). That includes our older young people - Hello to you all! - and our former Meadow families.

It’s also for anyone who resonates with life without school - perhaps you’re already unschooling or home edding, or considering it, and we can offer you some solidarity, perspective and support from a distance too.

This page is also for those of you who feel passionate about self-directed education and are already running your own settings, or perhaps dreaming of setting up your own project. We’re here for much-needed solidarity and to learn from each other along the way.

And it’s of course for all of the people who are invested in our journey and cheering us on from the sidelines!

Thank you for being here ❤️

Tell me, did I miss anyone? Why are you here? We’d love to know!