Forest Family Camp: A magical long weekend of camping under the stars and celebrating nature together
The Quadrangle Trust, Kent – 27th to 29th July 2018
With increasingly urban lives and less time to spend in nature, we’re creating a space for you and your children to feel the grass between your toes, to revitalise, replenish and rediscover your wild side.
Join us for an enriching weekend of nature connection, delicious vegetarian food, wild swimming, storytelling and music, dance, yoga and campfires hosted and curated by The Quadrangle Trust and Way of Nature.
Together we’ll build a community made up of 25 families that offers a safe space to re-wild ourselves and our children. Workshops will be aimed at children aged 4 – 8, but open to all.
Join the tribe, the camp is just the start…
We bring together forest school leaders, amazing healthy caterers, musicians and holistic well-being therapists to create a shared space where you and your family can be guided to explore connecting with nature and the art of mindful living.
The Quadrangle is a great space for this gathering with a wild-swimming river, a huge brick barn to use for dining, play and workshops, an orchard and permaculture forest garden. A yurt sits by the river and a 1970 Airstream caravan under the trees overlooking the pond is a rainy-day playroom and kid’s library.
Programme
The programme will include bushcraft sessions, storytelling, dancing, music, face-painting, fire building, practical workshops for parents equipping you with inspiring activities in nature for the whole family, yoga and lots of time for free play, which might include snoozing in the meadow, wild swimming or woodland walks.
Packing list and pick up times from Shoreham station to come in the Welcome Pack once you have registered.
Who’s it for?
Parents interested in:
– Forest schooling
– Allowing their children to be ‘free-range’ in a safe environment
– Low-impact living
Not for parents wanting to:
– Drop their kids off and party
Ethos
The aim of the camp isn’t to just have a fun weekend but to provide parents and children with the inspiration, games and tools to support a lot more time spent outdoors as a family.
We see our children spending more time outdoors as crucial to their education and incredibly supportive of a more whole upbringing.
Why is this important? Read more here about the benefits of being in nature and having the freedom to play.
In order to keep the modern distractions of technology at bay, we will all enjoy a digital detox and request all participants to leave laptops and iPads at home and have their phones switched off or on silent for the duration of the camp.
A Low-Impact Week-end
We’ll be aiming for the weekend to have as low a carbon footprint as possible and our environmental policy includes:
– Vegetarian food
– Food that is locally sourced or home-grown
– Recycling and reusing wherever possible
– Saving water (encouraging people to swim in the river rather than have a bath/shower)
– Organising lift shares and doing pick-ups from the station to discourage driving
Facilities
The Forest Garden: In 2010 the trustees at the Quadrangle began looking at how the pasture field could be used in a different way, produce food and help to educate people in ecology and low-impact living. The concept of a forest garden using the design principles of permaculture began taking shape. There is now over hundred young trees – apples, pears, plums and autumn olives, and fruit bushes – gooseberries, raspberries, red, black and white currants. Paths take you through the long grasses and around the trees to the camping circles. The river Darent runs gently beside the garden, with steps down to it for swimming and boating.
We will use the Main Barn as our dining space and backup workshop space if we have wet weather.
A Mongolian yurt and a vintage Airstream are on site for play and workshop spaces/dens.
There are 6 toilets and three showers on-site including 2 compost toilets in the Forest Garden camping field.
Schedule
Arrive between 2 – 3.30pm on Friday
The camp ends between 4-5pm on Sunday
Team
Camp Facilitators:
Amy Cooper
Amy loves dancing, cycling and walking on her hands. Always up for adventure she has been on a boat full of scientists to the Arctic taking photos, crawled around caves searching for rare bats. She an urban farmer with a team of children and experienced camp cook, so will be leading our feasts over the weekend. If you haven’t heard of the Secret Seed Society, here is Amy talking at TEDx about why she set it up!
Max Girardeau
Max has been part of the camp team since we started 3 years ago. His days are spent with The Outward Bound Trust as an education consultant, designing outdoor learning experiences for young people from across the capital. In his spare time, you’ll find him playing in the snow, climbing on rocks, scaling mountains, cooking, camping or dancing. His passion for the outdoors is infectious!
Zoë Solomons
Zoë spent her early years in the wildness of the rural Andes. The experience of growing up surrounded by a powerful landscape gave her a profound love of wildness and instilled a firm belief in the value of nature immersion to inspire, restore and connect. The sense of wonder that is so vital to a curious and open mind is something that Zoë is most grateful for as a parent and something she endeavours to bring to her work as a performer, movement teacher and osteopath, both in the UK and internationally. Zoë has also been a long-term facilitator of community camps at her home on the Yorkshire moors and is learning to enjoy the beauty and the chaos that collaborative community brings.
For more about Zoë see her website www.motionislotion.co.uk
Nathan Ardaiz
Nathan is a player of Lego and trains with his two gorgeous nephews, a designer of educational programmes in East London and educational spaces in Bangladesh, and is a facilitator of parents and adults alike. His best memories in nature were with his brothers on lakes in Idaho – fishing, swimming and skipping rocks.
Lizzie Lynch
Lizzie spends her days working in education policy, campaigning to teach children effective communication skills, her nights often staring at her toes on a yoga mat and her weekends in, or dreaming of, the Sussex countryside where she grew up. She’s passionate about reimagining education, and before coming to London taught English in Thailand and India.
Co-Producers:
Adrian Kowal Co-Founder of Way of Nature and Founder of evolve wellness centre
Jessie Teggin Creative Director of The Quadrangle Trust.
Price
– Bring your own tent: £150 per adult/£80 per child (for adults this breaks down as £80 for the weekend ticket that includes all the workshops, talks and events and £70 for all the amazing meals)
– If you’d like a bit more luxury then please register your interest in a family bell tent by emailing hello@thequadrangletrust.com
– We have a few bursary places available – please get in touch if you would like to find out more.
Price includes local transfers from the station, all sessions and vegetarian meals.
For more information visit The Quadrangle Trust or please email adrian@wayofnature.co.uk.
Join the tribe, the camp is just the start.