Big F-T's Shack Rockpool Adventures

08/09/2026

07/09/2026

Well… this was rather special. 🌊🔎🔥
A wonderful INSET day planned with Becky and Kim for the brilliant Hawksfield Nursery team. A day of curiosity, environment, regulation, risk, laughter, learning and, most importantly, giving ourselves the permission to notice.
Sometimes the greatest classroom is simply the one already around us.
The outdoors is our teacher. We are merely its TA.
Thank you Hawksfield for trusting me with your day. What a privilege. 🙏
And if you are a school, nursery, educational setting or organisation looking for an INSET day, training session or something a little different for your team, please get in touch. These days can be shaped around your setting, your environment and your people. It certainly does not have to be a beach. 🌿🌊🔎
OBSERVE • EDUCATE • PROTECT

07/09/2026

Well… what a rather special day this turned out to be. 🌊🦀🔎🔥
Today was one of those days where work really did not feel very much like work at all. I had the absolute privilege of planning and putting together Hawksfield Nursery’s INSET day, with the wonderful Becky and Kim helping me shape the day around their team, their children and where they want Hawksfield to go next.
And I will admit, I still find it slightly bonkers, and incredibly humbling, that an entire team of educators would give up their INSET day to listen to me waffle enthusiastically about environments, children, curiosity, rock pools and why sometimes the best thing an adult can do is stop talking for a minute and simply let a child notice. 😂🔎
Because this was never really about taking education “outside”. It is much bigger than that.
The environment is not simply where learning happens. The environment is part of the learning itself. Pedagogical theory Community Classroom Framework .pptx
So today we explored. We investigated. We got wet. Quite wet actually. 😂 We talked about risk, safety and responsibility, but we also talked about something that can sometimes get lost amongst all the paperwork and planning… the sheer joy of it.
That wonderful moment when somebody spots something and suddenly everyone gathers around. The questions start. Curiosity takes over. Nobody has been told to learn anything, yet somehow everybody is learning.
That is my Permission to Notice.
We talked about observation before explanation, experience before terminology, regulation, sensory learning, big emotions, and those children who might need a little more space, a little less noise and a little more time before they are ready to join us. Sometimes we are so busy asking a child to change that we forget to ask whether we could change the conditions around them instead. 🌿🧠 (Pedagogical theory Community Classroom Framework)
The outdoors is our teacher. We are merely its TA.
And then came possibly my favourite classroom of the day. 🔥
Around the fire Pit at Tolcarne, with an incredible spread put on for us by the Colonial Restaurant, marshmallows roasting, the sea right there beside us, and a proper conversation about what Hawksfield want to do next. No PowerPoint. No flip chart. Just people talking, questioning, laughing, reflecting and throwing ideas around. 😆 💡
And that, in itself, rather proved the point.
A huge thank you to Becky, Kim ( AKA LEGENDS!) and the whole Hawksfield team for trusting me to plan and deliver your INSET day. Reading afterwards that you felt you had found a “kindred spirit” genuinely got me. What a wonderfully curious, enthusiastic and slightly soggy bunch of humans to spend a few hours with. 😂🌊
And if there is one thing I hope everyone took away from today, it is this:
We do not always need to create more learning for children. Sometimes we simply need to create the conditions where learning can find them.
If you are a nursery, school or educational setting and fancy doing something a little different for an INSET or training day, give me a shout. It does not have to be a beach. A coastline, a woodland, a field, a town, a city, a community…
The classroom was never just the room. 🌍🔎
OBSERVE • EDUCATE • PROTECT

06/09/2026

am ridiculously proud to be sharing this one. 🌊🦀🔎 To be trusted by Treviglas Academy to become a little part of these young people’s learning journey is a HUGE honour, and I genuinely cannot wait to get started.
This is everything I love about Adventures in Education. Taking curriculum, community, environment and experience, mixing them all together, adding a healthy dollop of curiosity, and seeing what happens when young people are given the time and permission to notice. 👀💡🌍
There will be questions, discoveries, “WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?!” moments, plenty of laughter and, I suspect, quite a few adventures along the way. 🦀🐚🌊
Thank you Treviglas for believing in what I do and trusting me with something so important. This really does mean the world.
Right then, Year 7… shall we go and find out what is out there? 🔎🌊🧭

We are thrilled to be working with Big FT’s Shack and their Costal Learning Series initiative this year!✨
📢 To our new Year 7 students & families: Keep an eye out! More detailed information will be coming your way this week regarding your sessions with Mr. FT throughout the year. We can't wait for our Year 7s to get involved and make the most of this fantastic opportunity.

31/08/2026

31/08/2026

29/08/2026

🌊🦀 IT STARTED WITH A ROCK POOL…
A few children, a few crabs, a lot of questions, and one rather over enthusiastic bloke who has never quite mastered the art of pretending that rock pools are not ridiculously exciting. 😂
What began as one simple idea has somehow grown into something much bigger.
✨ Learning becomes incredibly powerful when we give curiosity somewhere to go.
Sometimes that is ankle deep in seawater, stopping long enough to notice the extraordinary little world that was sitting there all along. 🌊👀
Sometimes it is in a classroom, working alongside brilliant educators and children. 📚😊
Sometimes it is professionals sharing ideas and asking, “What else could we create here?” 💭
And somewhere along that journey, one little rock pool grew four branches…
🦀 ROCKPOOL ADVENTURES
🌊 COASTAL LEARNING SERIES
🌿 COMMUNITY CLASSROOM
⚓ CONSULTANCY & DESIGN
Different branches, but never separate ones. They all come back to curiosity, connection, experience, environment, community and place. 🌍
Whether I am alongside a child discovering their first shore crab, working with a school, speaking with educators or helping an organisation create something new, the purpose remains wonderfully simple.
✨ Create a reason to notice.
🔎 A reason to look closer.
💭 A reason to ask another question.
🌱 A reason to connect.
🌊 And ultimately, a reason to care.
And somehow, what started with one over enthusiastic coastal educator whose childhood hero was Sir David Attenborough, who never quite grew out of asking “Ooooh, what is THAT?”, and who has been known to slip into a questionable Attenborough impression 😂🎙️, has become something I could never have imagined.
One connected ecosystem. Four exciting branches. One simple purpose.
And the exciting bit?
I think we are only just getting started. 😊🌊
📩 [email protected]
🌍 www.big-ft.co.uk
🎟️ bookwhen.com/bigftsshack
OBSERVE • EDUCATE • PROTECT 🌊🦀🌿