Practicalities
Reimagine provides administrative support services for home education clubs with a broadly aligned ethos. We provide a website, reservation and customer service support on a voluntary basis in support of building a nurturing home education community. The below captures the way most of the clubs we support work, although each club has its own unique flavour.
Ages
The clubs we support welcome families of home educated or flexi-schooled children from around 4 years to 8 years are welcome to join us at the start, though we have no strict rules around the exclusion of younger or older children where that would suit the children concerned.
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Our clubs hope that they will support the same co-hort over a period of time, so the children will grow together, building strong bonds as a group and with learning facilitators as they develop their creative abilities, so that in two years time it will be a 6-10yrs cohort, and so on.
When & Where & How much?
The clubs we support will provide a mixture of arts & crafts, play, social, performance arts, musical, linguistic, gardening, cookery and project-based environment for home educated children, operating from a community centre with parents of younger children usually remaining on site.
Each club will operate year-round (not just term time) one day a week from 9am - 3pm. We currently support clubs operating on Monday, Wednesday or Friday.
Mother Nature Monday has a relaxed Steiner/craft flavour, with space for play and plenty of time outdoors;
Rhythmic Roots on a Wednesday has an unschooling-meets-Forest School vibe, with cooking and play - sadly this club is becoming dormant at the end of February due to personal reasons; and
Hummingbirds on a Friday operates in a nurturing child-led way through craft, music, growing and preparing food.
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Cost per child is £50. Adults may attend at no cost.
How long for?
The clubs we support intend to operate for many years, seeing the children as far into their journey to adolescence and adulthood as they are able to.
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Fostering the deep connections and community that arise over time, not just amongst the children, is a core principle.
Signing up
In order to support a consistent environment for the children most of the clubs we support expect a quarterly commitment in advance.
We are currently taking bookings for several clubs for the Autumn Season, which will start on 4th September, welcoming subscribers willing to commit until 1st December.
Most of the clubs we support offer trial days and periods to get to know children keen to join, who haven't been able to attend a pilot, to ensure new joiners are happy in the setting before seeking a financial commitment.
What about holidays?
Most clubs we support assume that everyone will take family time for holidays or otherwise, to suit their needs throughout the year. Parents are free to take their children away to explore whenever they choose.
This way everyone can benefit from the substantial financial discounts and other benefits of travel outside of school holidays.
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Most clubs are not in a position to offer discounts to those taking more holidays, but are exploring options here.
What does a 'normal day' look like?
Most of our clubs follow a similar format of day, along the following lines:
9am - Parents/carers and children arrive and come in for a cup of tea, a chat and a play.
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9:30am - Around this time mentors will take the lead and the children will gather for their morning session. Parents of younger children remain on-site with the freedom to use a shared remote working space if their children are comfortable for them to do so.
During both morning and afternoon sessions children will be supported to pursue their creative interests, see what inspiration their facilitators might have brought, engage in arts & crafts, performing arts, continue with existing projects and play. Organic vegetable / savoury snacks (such as breadsticks/hummus) will be available all morning when the children get hungry.
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12:00pm - Lunch time starts - Packed lunches for all (unless there has been a cooking project!), with parents/carers welcomed to join together to eat and unwind.
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1:30pm - Afternoon session starts after adults and children all help to clear away after lunch. Organic fruit snacks and/or savoury snacks will be available all afternoon when the children get hungry.
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3pm - Closing circle finishes for the day and home-time.
