Where the wild ones learn curriculum

Where the wild ones learn curriculum Training Academy offering Neuro Affirming- Nature based training for educators and families. Run Where the Wild Ones Learn Forest School
(5)

Authors of childrens books and Where the Wild Ones Learn - Roots of Learning.

If you use volunteers, assistants or regular helpers around children, there has been a change you need to know about.Fro...
01/10/2026

If you use volunteers, assistants or regular helpers around children, there has been a change you need to know about.

From 1 September 2026, the rules around regulated activity with children changed.

The big one?

The supervision exemption has been removed.

Previously, some roles could fall outside regulated activity because the person was being supervised.

That may no longer be the case.

So if you are a:

🌿 Childminder using an assistant or regular helper
🌿 Early Years setting
🌿 Forest School or outdoor provision
🌿 School using regular volunteers
🌿 Club, community group or organisation working with children

…it is worth reviewing who works with your children, what they actually do and how often they do it.

We know guidance like this can feel unnecessarily complicated, so we have turned it into a simple, practical FREE guide.

DBS, Volunteers & Regulated Activity: A Simple Guide to the September 2026 Changes

Inside we cover:

• What has actually changed
• Who it affects
• The “more than 3 days in 30” rule
• Overnight activity
• Weekly, monthly and twice-weekly volunteer examples
• What DBS check might now be needed
• A practical setting checklist
• A printable Volunteer & DBS Audit
• The DBS fee changes from 5 October 2026

And yes, volunteer DBS checks remain FREE.

We’ve added the full guide into our FREE Wild Minds community alongside our other Early Years updates, mini training and free practitioner resources.

👇 Comment FREE below and we’ll send you the link to join Wild Minds and download it.

No subscription needed. No paid membership required. Just useful Early Years support in one place.

“Everything seems to stop at Primary…”We’ve heard this again and again from people working in Secondary Forest School an...
30/09/2026

“Everything seems to stop at Primary…”

We’ve heard this again and again from people working in Secondary Forest School and Secondary SEN Forest School.

Practitioners have contacted us asking for support because there are lots of ideas, resources and guidance for Early Years and Primary…

…but once children reach secondary age?

It can feel like you’re on your own.

So we decided to create the resources we kept being asked for.

🌿 The Wild Lens Secondary Forest School Curriculum & Session Library – Ages 10–16

AND

🌿 The Wild Lens Secondary/SEN Forest School Practice Companion – Ages 10–16

These have been created specifically with older children and young people in mind, not primary activities with the age changed at the top.

Our Secondary Curriculum & Session Library has been designed to help practitioners create meaningful Forest School provision for ages 10–16 while connecting outdoor learning with curriculum areas, skills, progression and real-life learning.

And our Secondary/SEN Practice Companion goes deeper into inclusive Forest School practice, including regulation, communication, participation, independence, learner voice and recognising that engagement doesn't always look like sitting down and completing the activity everyone else is doing.

Because Secondary Forest School can be so much more than “we go outside on a Wednesday afternoon.”

It can be a space where young people develop:

🌿 independence
🌿 confidence and practical competence
🌿 communication
🌿 problem solving
🌿 regulation
🌿 relationships
🌿 supported risk taking
🌿 responsibility
🌿 meaningful curriculum connections
🌿 skills for adulthood

And for young people within SEN provision, participation doesn't have to look the same for everyone.

If you've been trying to build a Secondary Forest School programme and thinking…

“Where are the resources for us?”

We made these for you.

Available now – £24.99 for both

Comment SECONDARY below and we'll send you the link.

And please tag or share this with someone working in a secondary school, SEN school, alternative provision or Secondary Forest School, because we know there are lots of practitioners out there looking for exactly this

INCLUSION HAS TO WORK IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ORDINARY DAY.When a child keeps leaving group time. When a transition ends in ...
30/09/2026

INCLUSION HAS TO WORK IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ORDINARY DAY.

When a child keeps leaving group time. When a transition ends in tears. When something that looks like “challenging behaviour” might be telling us a child is overwhelmed.

Those are the moments when inclusion needs to be more than a good intention. We need ways to pause, notice what might be happening and make a practical change.

Our Inclusion in Practice: From Barriers to Belonging workshop helps you look beyond behaviour and identify barriers that may be making it harder for a child to take part. You’ll explore small, achievable changes you can make in your setting, using our Wild Lens approach:

Notice first.
Interpret cautiously.
Respond intentionally.

The workshop is for childminders and teams in nurseries, preschools, Reception and primary schools who want children to feel understood, included and able to belong.

Pre-order is open now for £15. We’re putting the finishing touches on the updated workshop, including its videos and learner downloads.

Want the booking link?

Comment INCLUSION below and we’ll send it to you.

🌟 Want to join our next live webinar 🌟Tomorrow at 7pm, we’re going live with:The Wild Lens™: Transforming Early YearsA ...
29/09/2026

🌟 Want to join our next live webinar 🌟

Tomorrow at 7pm, we’re going live with:

The Wild Lens™: Transforming Early Years

A webinar for Early Years practitioners and childminders who want to look a little deeper at what children are really showing us through their:

🌿 play
🌿 behaviour
🌿 movement
🌿 schemas
🌿 sensory needs
🌿 regulation
🌿 interactions with their environment

Because observation isn’t just about writing down what happened.

It’s about learning to pause and ask:

What am I actually noticing?
What could this mean?
What else might be going on here?
How could I respond without jumping in too quickly?

We’ll explore how The Wild Lens™ can support more thoughtful observation, reflective practice, child-led learning and professional decision-making.

🌿 Tomorrow Wed 30th Sept
🌿 7pm
🌿 Live online

https://jodie-s-site-e84d.thinkific.com/products/live_events/wild-lens-early-years-webinar

Our October Wild Minds+ Practice Pack is now live.A child returns to the same damp log every day. Another builds a bound...
28/09/2026

Our October Wild Minds+ Practice Pack is now live.

A child returns to the same damp log every day. Another builds a boundary around a handful of conkers. Someone who usually loves being outdoors suddenly refuses to wear their waterproofs.

What might we notice if we pause before planning the next autumn activity?

This month’s theme is Autumn Underneath, and it includes:

The October Monthly Pack, exploring fungi and decomposition, the enclosing schema, risk and challenge, and autumn sensory needs

A Mushroom Nature Study for slowing down and following children’s discoveries

Five printable resources, from noticing cards to a risk-benefit reflection

A seven-day Remove Before You Add environment review

A 20-minute mini CPD masterclass, Risk, Challenge & the Competent Child, including certificate.

It’s made for childminders and Early Years practitioners who want practical ideas that begin with the children in front of them.

Buy the October pack separately for £14.99, or access it through Wild Minds+ at £10 per month, alongside the other membership resources.

Join Wild Minds+ here https://jodie-s-community.mn.co/share/7-6rM_J5ibGZaWV_

Or buy it individually here
https://jodie-s-site-e84d.thinkific.com/products/courses/copy-of-wild-minds-september-monthly-practice-pack

INCLUSION IN PRACTICE: £15 PRESALEA child steps away from group time. Another needs to move while everyone else sits. A ...
25/09/2026

INCLUSION IN PRACTICE: £15 PRESALE

A child steps away from group time. Another needs to move while everyone else sits. A third watches from the edge before joining in.

What do we notice before deciding what those children need?

Our Inclusion in Practice workshop helps Early Years practitioners, childminders and teams bring inclusion into ordinary moments of the day. We’ll explore behaviour as communication, sensory needs, barriers to participation, and how changes to routines, environments and adult responses can help more children feel they belong.

Through The Wild Lens™, we begin with a simple approach: Notice first. Interpret cautiously. Respond intentionally.

The workshop is now available to preorder for £15 instead of £30 for the first 50 sign-ups.

If you want to feel more confident making thoughtful, practical changes in your setting, you can book here:

https://jodie-s-site-e84d.thinkific.com/products/courses/inclusion-practice-ofsted-new-framework

What is one part of your day where you’d like to make participation easier for every child?

🌿 NEW: Wild Minds+ Annual MembershipYou can now join Wild Minds+ for a full 12 months for £99.That means you get all the...
25/09/2026

🌿 NEW: Wild Minds+ Annual Membership

You can now join Wild Minds+ for a full 12 months for £99.

That means you get all the support, resources and professional development inside Wild Minds+ while saving compared with paying £10 monthly.

Your membership includes:

• Monthly Wild Minds+ Practice Packs
• CPD masterclasses and certificates
• Planning Hub resources
• SEND & Inclusion support
• Deeper schema learning
• Reflective practice tools
• Nature-rich and child-led practice resources
• Full access to the growing Wild Minds+ library
• New resources added throughout the year

Our monthly Practice Packs are £14.99 each when bought separately, so if you know you want ongoing inspiration and professional support throughout the year, the annual membership gives you brilliant value.

Wild Minds+ isn’t about giving you more activities to squeeze into your week.

It’s about helping you look more deeply at the learning already happening, feel more confident in your practice and keep developing through The Wild Lens™.

£99 for 12 months.

Comment WILD MINDS+ and I’ll send you the link.

What an unforgettable evening at Peterborough Cathedral last night, a truly posh celebration where Rachel and I were hon...
25/09/2026

What an unforgettable evening at Peterborough Cathedral last night, a truly posh celebration where Rachel and I were honoured as Peterborough Top 100 Rising Stars.

We met incredible people, made powerful connections, and there are some very exciting things coming up for Where the Wild Ones Learn.But most of all, we’re feeling grateful.

None of this would be possible without all you lovely people who have supported us from the very beginning.

Your belief in nature‑based learning, your encouragement, your shares, your comments, it all matters.

Here’s to growing wild together. 🌿✨🌟

I think we’ve made STEAM sound far more complicated than it needs to be.When we say STEAM, what do you picture?Science e...
24/09/2026

I think we’ve made STEAM sound far more complicated than it needs to be.

When we say STEAM, what do you picture?

Science experiments?

Coding?

Complicated resources?

A table full of equipment you’ve had to buy?

Because that isn’t what STEAM has to look like.

A child building a bridge from sticks is exploring engineering.

Pouring water down a muddy slope and watching where it travels is science.

Working out which log will balance is maths.

Changing a den because it keeps collapsing is problem solving, design and engineering.

Mixing mud, leaves, berries and natural materials to create something is art, experimentation and investigation.

And the best bit?

You might already be providing opportunities like these every single day.

The problem is that we don’t always recognise the depth of learning happening within them.

That is exactly why we created our STEAM in Nature Practitioner course.

Not to give you another folder of activities to recreate.

Not to turn outdoor play into adult-led lessons.

But to help you understand how science, technology, engineering, art and maths naturally emerge through play, exploration, curiosity and the outdoors.

You'll learn how to:

🌿 recognise STEAM learning already happening in children's play

🌿 understand how it develops from Early Years through the primary age range

🌿 create environments that encourage investigation without taking over

🌿 respond to children's ideas rather than constantly planning activities for them

🌿 make stronger links between what you observe and the learning taking place

🌿 feel much more confident explaining the value of child-led outdoor learning

Preorder is currently £150 instead of £200.

And you won't simply pay now and hear nothing until the course opens.

Everyone who preorders will receive exclusive STEAM downloads along the way, so you can start developing your practice before the full course even begins.

But before I tell you any more about it, I want to know something.

What is the biggest thing that puts you off STEAM?

A. I don't really understand what counts as STEAM
B. It sounds too complicated
C. I don't have enough resources
D. I struggle to connect it with the curriculum
E. I already do it but wouldn't know how to explain the learning

Comment A, B, C, D or E below.

I genuinely want to know.

🍂 Happy Autumn Equinox 🍂Today marks that beautiful point of balance between light and dark, and for those who celebrate ...
23/09/2026

🍂 Happy Autumn Equinox 🍂

Today marks that beautiful point of balance between light and dark, and for those who celebrate Mabon, a moment to pause, notice the changing season and welcome autumn properly. 🤎

There is so much for children to notice at this time of year without us needing to manufacture the learning.

Leaves beginning to turn and fall.

Conkers, acorns and treasures filling pockets.

Changes in light, temperature and weather.

Fungi appearing.

Mud returning.

Seeds, decay, wind, puddles, colour, texture and all those tiny seasonal shifts children often spot before we do.

That is exactly why we created our Autumn Nature-Rich Practice Companion.

It is not a book of autumn activities to work through.

It is there to help you slow down, notice what children are already exploring and think about where the learning might be sitting underneath it.

Inside we explore autumn play and learning through sensory experiences, schemas, SEND, different developmental needs, nature connection and ideas for how practitioners can respond without taking over.

🌿 Plan less. Notice more. Respond with confidence.

So, in celebration of the Autumn Equinox and Mabon, if you are ready to lean into everything this season is already offering, you can find the companion here:

🍁 https://www.wherethewildoneslearn.co.uk/product-page/autumn-nature-rich-practice-companion

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+447772074208

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