Where the wild ones learn curriculum

✨ SOMETHING BIG IS COMING NEXT YEAR✨

We have been working incredibly hard behind the scenes on our new Nature Practitioner Level 3 Professional Programme and we genuinely think this is going to be something really special.

This is not going to be a quick online CPD course.

It is being designed as a deep, professionally assessed programme for practitioners who want to take their nature-rich practice, professional judgement and leadership to the next level.

The programme will explore areas including:

* The Wild Lens™ and reflective practice leadership
* Advanced observation and professional judgement
* Advanced child development through nature-rich practice
* Regulation, neurodiversity and inclusive practice
* SEND and PDA-informed approaches
* Schemas at a much deeper level
* Movement, sensory experience and executive function
* Creating rich nature environments and understanding affordances
* Risk-benefit thinking, safeguarding and professional responsibility
* Responsive curriculum and planning without taking over children’s play
* Working with families, teams and communities
* Leading and developing high-quality nature provision
* Ecological responsibility, sustainability and children’s relationship with place

And there will be a substantial practical element too delviered by the wonderful The Forest School Queen

Learners will develop practical outdoor skills through demonstrations and guided practice, and there will be two ways to complete the practical assessment.

🌱 Online Assessed Pathway - practise the skills in your own environment and submit practical video evidence for assessment.

🌱 Blended / In-Person Pathway - complete the online programme alongside practical face-to-face training and assessment with our team.

Both routes will involve much more than simply watching training videos.

Learners will complete workplace tasks, professional reflections, practical competencies, portfolio evidence, case studies and a final professional practice assessment.

We want people finishing Level 3 to be able to explain not only what they do, but:

why they do it, what they noticed, what evidence influenced their decision and what happened because of their response.

And because we want the first group to receive a really high level of support, our Founding Cohort will be limited to just 20 practitioners.

We are still working away behind the scenes and will be sharing lots more as the programme develops.

If you think Nature Practitioner Level 3 might be your next step and you would like to be one of the first to hear about:

🌿 the Founding Cohort
🌿 course dates
🌿 pricing
🌿 payment-plan options
🌿 online and face-to-face pathways
🌿 early access to booking

email us at:

[email protected]

and we’ll keep you updated with the progress.

This has been a huge piece of work already, and we are SO excited about where it is going.

Notice first. Interpret cautiously. Respond intentionally.

Keeping cool in the woods… and a little slide debate!

Yesterday we headed to The Spinney, which was absolutely perfect in this heat because so much of the park is shaded by the trees.

The children had the best time, climbing mud banks, watching the trains go past, using the zip line, climbing, swinging and just making the most of the environment around them. 🌿

And then came a bit of a debate!

Do you allow children to climb UP slides?

I do.

My rule is simple: if another child is waiting to come down the slide, they get priority. But if the slide is free, I’m more than happy for children to explore it in another way.

Yesterday all of my mindees took their shoes and socks off and were climbing up the slide before sliding back down. They were using their whole bodies, problem solving, working out where to place their feet, developing strength, coordination, balance and confidence.

Another parent was quite unhappy about it and told me:

“Slides are for sliding down, not climbing up.”

I politely replied that I didn’t realise there was a rule book. 😂

For me, this is exactly where we need to think about risk versus restriction.

If children climbing up is stopping another child from using the slide safely, absolutely, we intervene.

But if nobody is waiting to come down… why stop them?

A slide isn't only a slide to a child. It’s a climbing challenge, an incline, a surface to experiment with and an opportunity to work out what their body can do.

Sometimes I think we adults have very fixed ideas about how equipment is 'supposed, to be used, while children see possibilities.

So I’d genuinely love to know…

👇 Are you team “slides are for sliding down” or team “climb away if nobody is waiting”?

And if you’re an early years practitioner or childminder, what’s your approach?

🌟 People keep asking us… “What actually is The Wild Lens™?”

So we thought we’d explain.

The Wild Lens™ is the way we encourage practitioners to look beyond the activity and really notice what is happening for the child.

Instead of always starting with:

“What activity should I plan?”

We start with:

🌱 What am I noticing?
🌱 What might be happening here?
🌱 What does the child, adult or environment need?
🌱 Does this moment actually need anything from me?

At the heart of The Wild Lens™ is our simple reflective cycle:

NOTICE → WONDER → RESPOND → REFLECT

It encourages us to look at the whole picture:

🌿 the child and what they may be communicating
🌿 their play, interests and possible schemas
🌿 the learning already happening
🌿 sensory needs and regulation
🌿 the environment and the possibilities it offers
🌿 relationships and connection
🌿 when to step in… and when to step back

Because sometimes we add something.

Sometimes we adapt the environment.

Sometimes we support.

Sometimes we teach.

And sometimes

we leave the play completely alone.

The Wild Lens™ isn't another checklist or another pile of activities.

It is about becoming more confident at seeing what is already happening in front of you and making intentional decisions about what, if anything, needs to happen next.

And this thinking now sits underneath all of our training at Where the Wild Ones Learn.

If you'd like to start exploring our approach, you can begin with:

🌱 Our Practitioner Guides
🌱 Level 1 Nature Practitioner Training
🌱 Level 2 Nature Practitioner Training
🌱 Outdoor Play Schema Training

And we're currently developing our Level 3 Nature Practitioner Training too. 🌿

We also have a growing collection of mini trainings if you'd like bite-sized CPD you can complete straight away, with an instant certificate on completion.

Whether you start with a guide, a mini training or one of our full courses, the message running through them is the same:

Notice first.
Interpret cautiously.
Respond intentionally.

🌿 That is The Wild Lens™.

You can explore our practitioner guides and training on our website.

And if you've already completed some of our training, we'd love to know

Has it changed the way you look at children's play?

Eddie turned 5 today, and just like the day he was born, I was working. 💛

He chose to spend his birthday at our local country park with the childminding friends he’s grown up alongside. We were also joined by one of my very first childminding families, still with me now, their son, their daughter, and a childminding friend with her children and mindees.

Days like this remind me that childminding is so much more than a job. It’s family. It’s community. It’s children growing up together, parents staying connected, and memories being made in the most ordinary, beautiful ways.

I still can’t believe Eddie burst into the world 5 years ago, in the car of all places.
We should have called him Ford after the type of car he was born in. 🚗💙

Here’s to our wild, wonderful boy, and to the little community that’s grown around him. 🌿

Sometimes, that sentence tells us more about the expectation than it does about the child.

A child might stand at the edge of group time.

Watch rather than participate.

Leave halfway through.

Carry on building while everyone else sits for a story.

Choose the mud kitchen instead of the activity we carefully prepared.

And it can be tempting to think:

“They need to learn to join in.”

But perhaps there is another question we could ask first…

What is joining in asking of this child?

🌿 To stop something they are deeply engaged in?
🌿 To move into a busy or noisy space?
🌿 To sit still when their body needs movement?
🌿 To process lots of language at once?
🌿 To cope with other children being very close?
🌿 To transition before they are ready?
🌿 To participate in a way that makes sense to us, rather than to them?

Participation does not always look like sitting in the group.

The child watching from the edge may be listening.

The child moving around may still be engaged.

The child who returns later may simply have needed more processing time.

And sometimes, the child who chooses not to participate is communicating something important about the environment we have created.

Before asking:

“How can I get this child to join in?”

Try asking:

“Does this need anything from me?”

Do I need to support the child?

Adapt the expectation?

Change the environment?

Offer another way to participate?

Or simply allow them to be where they are?

Same child.
Same moment.
Different lens. 🌿

Have you ever changed an expectation after realising the child wasn’t the thing that needed changing?

I’d love to hear your examples below. 👇

🌿 TWO COURSES. ONE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BUNDLE. 🌿

If you’ve been wanting to deepen your understanding of outdoor practice AND understand children’s play schemas more confidently, we’ve brought two of our courses together.

The Professional Practice Bundle includes:

🌱 Level 2 Nature Practitioner Course
Usually £199

PLUS

🌀 Outdoor Play Schema Accreditation
Usually £150

Bought separately: £349

✨ Bundle price: £299

That’s a £50 saving while gaining access to two courses designed to help you look more deeply at children’s play, learning and outdoor experiences.

Also a pay monthly option!

These aren’t courses about creating Pinterest-perfect activities.

They’re about understanding why children do what they do, recognising the learning already happening and becoming more intentional about the environments and experiences we provide.

Perfect for:

• Childminders
• Early years practitioners
• Nursery teams
• Forest school and outdoor practitioners
• Anyone wanting to strengthen their nature-based practice

🌿 Online learning
🌿 CPD accredited
🌿 Learn around your own commitments

https://jodie-s-site-e84d.thinkific.com/bundles/the-professional-practice-bundle

🌟 NEW: Wild Minds+ Monthly Practice Packs

We’ve been creating something new for practitioners who want more than activity ideas.

Each month, Wild Minds+ members will receive a brand-new seasonal practice pack designed to help you notice more, reflect more deeply and make small, meaningful changes to your provision.

🍂 September: New Rhythms & Changing Seasons

Inside September’s pack:

🌱 Seasonal nature focus
🌱 Schema focus: Transporting
🌱 Routines & transitions
🌱 SEND + inclusive practice
🌱 Monthly environment challenge
🌱 Team reflection & CPD prompts
🌱 15-30-minute member masterclass with certificate each month
🌱 Printable member resources
🌱 7-day reflection tool

These aren’t activity packs filled with things you have to do.

They’re designed to help you slow down, observe what is already happening and think more intentionally about the child, the adult and the environment.

Two ways to access them:

🌿 Wild Minds+ membership — £10 per month
Your monthly pack is included as part of your membership, alongside the other Wild Minds+ resources and support.

🍂 Individual Monthly Pack — £14.99
Prefer to buy just the pack? Each month’s edition will also be available separately through our website.

So if you know you’ll want these each month, Wild Minds+ gives you the full monthly pack for less than the cost of buying it individually.

September is just the beginning. 🌱

Notice more. Change less. Reflect deeply.

🌿 Where the Wild Ones Learn
The Wild Lens™

I think this is something worth sitting with.

We can create the loveliest outdoor invitation, choose beautiful resources, think carefully about the learning we hope might come from it.

But what happens when the child takes it somewhere completely different?

Do we follow?

Or do we gently steer them back towards what we had planned?

Child-led practice doesn’t mean adults have no role.

We still bring knowledge, experience, boundaries and intentionality.

But sometimes our role is less about directing the learning and more about noticing what the child is already trying to do.

They might use the sticks differently.

Ignore the activity completely.

Turn the mud kitchen into something we hadn’t imagined.

Repeat one tiny part for twenty minutes.

Or become interested in something happening three metres away.

That isn’t necessarily the activity going wrong.
It might be the moment the real learning begins.

The plan can give us a starting point.

But the child should still have room to change the direction. 💜

🍂🌿 WE’RE IN NOT JUST A CHILDMINDER MAGAZINE! 🌿🍂

We are so excited to share that we have an article featured in the Autumn Edition of Not Just A Childminder Magazine! 🥰

Our article, “Seeing the Threads: Outdoor Schemas and the Way They Shape Our Practice,” is all about something we are hugely passionate about at Where the Wild Ones Learn — slowing down, observing children more closely and recognising the patterns behind their play.

It explores how understanding schemas has completely changed the way I look at things such as throwing, climbing, transporting, tipping, repeating and moving.

Instead of asking:

“How do I stop this?”

we can begin asking:

“What is this child trying to understand?” 🌿

That simple shift has had such a big impact on my own practice.

The article shares real experiences from my childminding setting, including how supporting a child's trajectory schema helped me move away from trying to “manage” behaviour and towards seeing the learning, thinking and purpose behind it.

We also talk about why the outdoors can be such a powerful place for schemas to unfold, giving children the space, freedom and opportunity to repeat, experiment, take appropriate risks and explore ideas with their whole bodies.

We are incredibly proud to be contributing to a magazine created for the childminding community and to be sharing a little piece of our Wild Ones practice with other practitioners. 💚

🍁 The Autumn Edition is available to pre-order now!

Make sure you order your copy and look out for our article when it arrives! 👀🌿

And if you read it, we would absolutely love to know what you think.

Where the Wild Ones Learn 🌿

Notice more. Understand more. Let children lead the way.

https://notjustachildminder.co.uk/product/autumn-issue/

A child joins confidently on Tuesday and refuses on Wednesday.

They manage the transition with one adult but struggle with another.

It can look inconsistent.

But perhaps the conditions are different.

The noise.
The group size.
The amount of warning.
The language used.
Whether the child can move away.

Instead of asking, 'Why can they do it sometimes?',

We can look more closely at what helps access become possible.

Comment LEVEL 2 for information about our deeper Nature Practitioner training.