Wilderness Wood is NOT a school. It’s a woodland community of around 250 families where people of all ages come together to work and play - and that includes the children!

On a typical week, around 50 home educated and flexi-schooled children and teenagers come to the woods on different week days instead of school... They come to help out, do projects, make things, share knowledge and skills and have fun. And they are not ranked or measured. They learn a lot too - but the learning is almost incidental - our aim is a good day.

You can read Emily’s reflections on Wilderness Wood as an alternative to school on her blog:‘A Good Day’ 

Emily describes her ideas about alternatives to school on Stan Pinsent’s podcast ‘About Learning’ - listen to her episode here.

We recently held a Not Back to School session (Sep 11th 2026) at which we shared information about current groups at the woods and members who are willing to offer workshops for home educators. Families at the event also shared information about other groups and activities in the local area which welcome home educating families.