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WHY I DO THIS
PREVIOUS WORK
THE MOLLY MOMENT
THANKS

WHY I DO THIS

Let me try to answer this question with a true story. I started working in education way back in 1982. For the previous 14 years I had worked as an actuary (yeah, well look it up) for a couple of large insurance companies based in the City of London. My first pupils were sixteen year-olds who had left school and couldn't get jobs. They were on the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP) as it was then called. My job was to help them gain life and social skills which, apparently, school had not done. Four days a week they learned hairdressing, beauty, childcare, painting, carpentry, building or environmental care and one day a week they came to me.

When we first met they were either apathetic to a classroom learning environment or even a bit passively aggressive. They kinda told me they were stupid and had failed school. I told them school had failed them, explained why I wanted to help them and began to look for skills that, hidden somewhere, they all had.

Leap forward some 12 years and I was walking through Colchester and a guy came up to me and said “Hi, do you remember me”. The answer was no but he explained that he had been on one of the first courses I had run and he was now the deputy manager of a local hotel. “Without you telling me that I could do that course in communication skills and helping me through it, I wouldn’t be in this job now”, he said. I told him that was great but I still couldn't put a name to his face and told him so. “Ah”, he said, “you must have had hundreds of students since me but I remember you because you were the only teacher I ever had who taught me, not some weird subject. You cared about me not some stupid exam resuslt”. And that was, and still is, my aim with any form of education. I want to educate the child, the learner, to help them develop not to feed them some facts about a “weird” subject. I want the learning to appeal to them, even be led by them. My role has always been that of guide, mentor, facilitator, occasional cajoler, and subtle, in the nicest most beneficial way, manipulator.

I hope that over these last 40 or so years I have fulfilled that role either when I was in the classroom or with some of the dozen or so books I have contributed to or written on my own or now as I develop and produce resources from which people can learn but have fun.

Just recently after meeting, talking to and learning from, Molly at the Forest School I have been inspired again to push on with my belief. Molly and Forest Schools have the same desire within a learning environment as I fostered all those years ago. Help the child learn, give them freedom to do so, let them take risks but be their guide.

This is some of the nice things people have said about my work. I tell you those comments make the work I do so worthwhile and satsifying. I don't get to see how children develop; I only occasionally hear about it.

PREVIOUS WORK

The concept of this resource comes from my experiences over those years and my own personal learning adventures, which are still going on. The idea of learning through reality, by seeing, even second-hand, is not new but modern technology allows us, as the learning providers, to do so much more than our predecessors. I have always believed that the personality of that guide, that mentor, has a major impact on everyone's learning so how much better can it then be if that guide can use a resource which also has a personality. This I believe I have achieved with Owlbut's World of Learning.

Although I strongly believe that, in an ideal world, learning should be tailored to an individual, I accept that, as of now, convention dictates learning establishments follow a curriculm and this website has so many different ways that it can be used in nearly all areas of any curriculum. It is truly cross-curricula although built around history and geography. It can easily develop reading and literacy skills and the "The World" section lends itself to improving learning and familiarity with Maths and statistical representation.

I suppose the idea of "reality learning" (learning from a real live source other than a teacher) came about in 1985 when I made my first journey along the entire coastline of Great Britain. It all began because I and my then wife decided to take our two children out of school for a year and show them more of the country that they called home.

The adventure started on June 29. We bought a motorhome and, together with two helpers, packed in the possessions we would need for a year (the rest was put into storage), and set off on what turned out to be an amazing experience. Most of the time we stayed in rented holiday accommodation, the motorhome being used only in emergencies.

Our children were 7 and 10 at the time and even now, as middle-aged parents themselves, they remember so much of the adventure. As well as writing a daily diary, their formal education was structured into each week but the breadth of their reality learning, the depth of their actual knowledge, far exceeded that of any of their peers, They returned to normal schooling the following year with no harm done and duly completed their education. I, too, returned to my career, still working in education. In the current coronavirus pandemic I can categorically state that a year out of school for children at primary level does not have to cause any harm at all.

In 1993, while running a computer course for a group of primary school teachers, the story of my first trip came up. All the teachers agreed that it would have been a wonderful learning adventure for their pupils to have followed.

It was only a suggestion but a year later I was off again, this time with sponsorship from ASDA, BP and NatWest. Whilst the concept of travelling around the coast remained, the journey was to be followed by 50 primary schools around the country by way of a 12 page weekly newsletter with six or seven, loose, photographs each week. That resource was featured in a Times Educational Supplement article in November 1994, which I have transcribed here. It was also featured in a series of articles in a magazine called Holiday UK, which, it would appear, has since ceased publication.

Again it was a family adventure. I had remarried since that first journey and had a 2-year-old son but we were also joined by my eldest son, Dave, from my first marriage, who had been on that first trip and was now 17 years old. The fifth member was another 17 year old boy, a friend of Dave’s.

In retrospect, I will admit that I almost took on too much in attempting to produce a weekly 12 page newsletter as well as a series of monthly articles and go out and visit all the sites along the coast and take the photos and, horror of horrors, actually have to have them developed and reprinted 50 times. Initially the schools were receiving newsletters one month after I had visited an area but, toward the end of the trip, my mother was taken to hospital and, after a very short stay, sadly died. I managed to get home in time to visit her several times and then stayed to organise the funeral. However, once I returned to my travels, 3 weeks had passed, and the remainder of the trip was even more stressful, having only a week between visits and producing the newsletters.

Over the following two years I provided the resource to parents who had chosen, or been forced, to take their children out of mainstream school. Although it was no longer "live", I still received many letters of thanks from parents who found it incredibly useful.

In 2001, over a period of 28 incredibly hectic days, I made a third trip at the request of a US travel magazine trying to convince its readers that, despite the ongoing foot and mouth epidemic, England still was a green and pleasant land and well worth a visit. My, by then, 9-year-old son who suffered from speech dyspraxia and who I had taught at home since he was 5, accompanied me. I'm sure his love of history, he is now a published short story writer, has a Masters degree in Law and History and has also been called to the Bar, stems from using material from that second journey to help him learn history and geography when reading and writing were impossible. He worked tirelessly on his speech therapy and also acted as my "calculator" for my end of year accounts, adding up all figures in his head. Maths was easy for him. Another example, in my eyes, of a child for whom early education out of school was a distinct benefit.

Then in 2010, after nearly 8 years out of the country working with schools in Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, I met up with the same Doug Brown quoted by the TES. In a wide ranging discussion Doug, by then principal of Engaines School, mentioned that the earlier project was way ahead of its time, even ahead of the BBC Coast programme by some ten years but as I had been out of the country travelling since 2002, I hadn't even heard about Coast. Doug said the whole concept was ideal for the internet and gave me the idea to someday have one more trip.

And that was always my dream, my hope. Sadly situations over which I have had little control have not allowed that to be. Everything was in place to begin in September 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic put an end to that. But now there are plans and you can read about them elsewhere on this website. The moral of this story, and one young people might like to adhere to, is never give up. Whatever is thrown in your way, keep going. It might happen from September 2025 and I will never say never. Till then our new School of the Air section will allow us to find another way to provide innovative and unique learning material without, as yet, such a journey.


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THE MOLLY MOMENT

Yes, it started as a moment but very soon working with Molly became a part of my life and the next few years will see her have as much input as I do on this website and what we do. The moment occurred in July 2022 after I had seen something about a Forest School operating in my area. The pictures looked great so I rang the number shown and left a message. Nothing happened for at least a week and, normally, I would have not followed through. If you can't be bothered to call back, then you're not worth my time. But something made me have another go, leave another message and this time I got a message back, an apology (Molly had been laid low with Covid) and a meeting was arranged at the Forest School.

I was amazed at what I saw, the work that had gone into the area and even more enamoured by what I heard. Child-led learning, building confidence, developing curiosity; these were all things I had been trying to do in education for the previous forty years and, unlike my conversations with Sir Ken Robinson (see below), this person was not about my age nor been around for such a long time. I was not only impressed, although I really need the superlative of impressed, but I felt an instant connection, an instant rapport.

This rapport grew stronger when I discovered virtually everything at the Forest School had been done, built, planned by Molly. You see people are often amazed that, until recently (until the Molly Moment), nearly every page on my website was written, researched, checked and then coded by me. I suggested at that first meeting I'd like to put some videos about the Forest School on my site and Molly happily agreed.

And that was how our working relationship began. There are many stories about what we went through (there may even be a book one day) but the end result is that I now have the chance to work with someone with whom I have this special relationship; someone who not only inspires me to greater heights but also supports and encourages the work we do and is totally dedicated and passionate about what is our shared aim.

Molly Moment's only happen once in a lifetime I can assure you. You, as well as I and hopefully Molly, can all now benefit from it.


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THANKS

THE LATE DOUG BROWN - a source of support and inspiration.

I first met Doug when the project was just beginning in September 1994. As soon as he heard my ideas he was on-board and I talked to him several times leading up to the start of our travelling in the October. Indeed a week before we set off BBC Radio Essex came out to the school for a morning and recorded a piece about the project. Doug was interviewed and was really enthusiastic and a couple of interviews were made with the children. It was all great fun.

Once my journey started Engaines got engaged in a big way as you can see from the article in the Times Educational Supplement of November 1994 which I talked about earlier. Remember we only started in October and already Doug had devised all these activities which I know, from correspondence, his pupils loved.

We lost touch for almost 15 years but, after I returned to England from my travels abroad, I phoned some of the schools who had been involved in that 1994-95 Project. When I phoned Engaines and gave the receptionist my name she put me through to the now principal of the school and his first words were, “I know that name, is it who I think it is? Are you man who went round the coast some years ago?” I agreed I was, actually I still am, and we arranged to meet the following week.

When we did he wanted to know what I had been doing and then made the life-changing comment, “you know you were so ahead of your time. That project would be superb on the internet”. Our conversation continued, he told me about the BBC Coast programme and speculated whether they had actually “borrowed” my idea in view of the radio broadcast back in ’94, and I left totally inspired to “give it a go” on the internet.

It took a while to formulate ideas but Doug was there to offer advice and encouragement. He told me of his intention to retire soon, asking had I considered this idea, but I told him I so enjoyed this sort of work I couldn’t see a time when I would want to stop.

Of course ideas are one thing, execution another and there have been countless hiccups on the way to beginning this project on the net. Even after his retirement Doug and I still spoke. He was a great lover of history and liked the fact I wanted to include this in an even bigger way in the new project.

And now he has gone, given so little time to enjoy his retirement and even the time he did have was filled with worry and sadness. Those who follow me and learn and enjoy our site will owe much to Doug Brown. I certainly will not forget his help, support and down-to-earth attitude.

THE LATE SIR KEN ROBINSON.

We'd also like to pay tribute to Sir Ken Robinson, OBE, who passed away on 21st August 2020. Sir Ken's 2006 talk asking “Do schools kill creativity” not only inspired me but convinced me that my humble attempts to inspire creativity in education had not been in vain and should continue. Subsequent communications pushed me onwards and this website is the culmination of many years of work. I hope it will inspire the imagination of young minds and stimulate creativity. As Sir Ken said, “Creativity is as important as literacy”.

My oft-used quote about creating an infectious desire to learn through this site is endorsed by another quote from Sir Ken and that is “.....education needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardise education but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions”. I'd like to thank Sir Ken for his intermittent but very welcome advice over the years.

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