'Sustainable learning for a sustainable future'
'What Matters?'
'What Matters?' Cymbrogi Companions, an Educators Journey
‘Take a journey towards a more sustainable future.’
Develop your knowledge of the Core Four (Sustainability, Well-being, Creativity, Collaboration) through an immersive 4 Stage Journey. Reflect upon the question ‘What Matters?' and take a decisive step towards becoming a Changemaker within your own world.
"What makes the experience so unique & relevant is that you start to see how interconnected each module is to the other."
We invite you to join us on an experiential learning journey and become Cymbrogi Companions.
We are a team of leading practitioners and educators in sustainability, curriculum design, creativity, well-being, collaborative and outdoor learning.
We have come together to design for you a unique range of online and onsite experiences centred around 21st century knowledge, skills and mindsets. We call them our Cymbrogi Core Four.
An engagement with the Cymbrogi Core Four provides you with the opportunity to explore, from theory through to applied practice, a range of ‘future-proof’ skills and content firmly orientated towards the future. You’ll do this through both online learning modules and onsite practice, in one of the most inspirational natural sites in the country - Lawrenny, Pembrokeshire.
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Taking the journey further you will also have the opportunity to undertake a supported research-focused Action-Impact Project designed to apply your new understanding and skills to make a difference within your community.
"It has given me hope that children with similar learning difficulties like myself, will be heard and accepted within the learning environment."
A 2-day programme of experiential, hands-on and collaborative activities at our Lawrenny site (a Covid-Safe learning environment). You will explore further the Core Four with our Champions and lead practitioners, develop ‘future-proof’ skills and access unique experiences ranging from coastal foraging to well-being practice, storytelling, creativity and curriculum design workshops.
Explore
Onsite Residential
Understand
Online Modules
As part of the second day of the onsite programme you will learn to apply Design Thinking in the development of a Action-Impact Project. You will then take this project back into your communities to implement. Across this stage you will be supported by the Cymbrogi team and fellow Companions.
Materialise
Action-Impact Project
Ongoing reflective journaling enables participants to recognise and own the journey they have been on. We encourage participants to share their learning with others across the Cymbrogi community and beyond. This forms part of the ‘graduation’ from the programme. At this stage we invite our Companions to join us at our annual Cymbrogi Futures Festival of Learning and to take their learning further through additional programmes of study.
Reflect
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Evaluate & Share
'What Matters?' Journey
An Educators Learning Journey
Access 4 self-paced Core Modules and 1 consolidation module, each designed and facilitated by an expert in the field.
Through each module explore the theory and practice of a Core Knowledge area. Take this further through associated elective micro-modules and additional resources.
Modules use a combination of video instruction, interactive activities and live Q&A sessions with the module lead.
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A 2-day programme of experiential, hands-on and collaborative activities at our Lawrenny site (a Covid-Safe learning environment). You will explore further the Core Four with our Champions and lead practitioners, develop ‘future-proof’ skills and access unique experiences ranging from coastal foraging to well-being practice, storytelling, creativity and curriculum design workshops.
Ongoing reflective journaling enables participants to recognise and own the journey they have been on. We encourage participants to share their learning with others across the Cymbrogi community and beyond. This forms part of the ‘graduation’ from the programme. At this stage we invite our Companions to join us at our annual Cymbrogi Futures Festival of Learning and to take their learning further through additional programmes of study.
Stage 4
Reflect
Evaluate & Share
Essential Information
When
Rolling sign up to the Online component.
Onsite Residential Programme:
Spring 2023
Contact us about our 2023 Spring dates starting March - May
Summer 2023
Contact us about our 2023 Summer dates June -July.
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PLUS - dates on request
What's Included
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Unlimited access to 5 online self-paced modules
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Unique and highly personalised 2 day onsite programme of activities guided by our expert Champions
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All food, drink, materials (Organic, local, sustainable)
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Online support throughout your Action-Impact Project
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Onsite accommodation in shared Bell Tents
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Global networking opportunities
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Access to our Festival of Learning
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How much?
£450 per participant.
Group discount available.
Subsidised places for Pembrokeshire educators.
Stage 1: Understand
Owning Your Well-being
To own our well-being we need an integrated, science-based understanding. Only through owning our well-being can we build a healthy & sustainable future for ourselves & others.
This module shares what it means to be well, with practices that can help you cultivate your own well-being.
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Module Lead: Shaun Brooking
Development Collaborator: Shaun Brooking Coaching
Sustainable & Circular Futures
If we are to have a thriving planet and survive as a species, we need to change how we live and work. Understand and reflect on why it’s important to think and act on this now, as learners, educators and leaders.
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Module Lead: Dr Verity Jones
Development Collaborator: The Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Creativity & the Curriculum
Creativity is an innate capacity within all of us, but it needs actively nurturing. This module explores the benefits of introducing creativity into your practices and how your own creativity can be harnessed to shape the capacity, ability and practices of others.
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Module Lead: Al Brunker
Development Collaborator: Let's Do This
Collaborative Action
More than ever the world requires us to harness our capacity for collaboration. It is the only way we address the challenges we face, as individuals and as a community. This module explores the nature of collaborative activity, how to develop your capacity for it and strategies that will help you to build sustainable collaborative relationships.
Module Lead: Rob Gratton
Development Collaborator: Liberated Learning
"Some very insightful information and ideas that I can integrate and deliver into my classroom."
Ongoing reflective journaling throughout Stage 2 and 3 culminates in a final and highly personal reflection of the journey that has been undertaken. An engagement with reflection enables participants to connect their experiences with their growth as a practitioner of sustainable action, at both the intra and interpersonal levels. A reflective learner is an empowered learner.
We encourage learners to become educators, sharing with others what they have learnt and with that contributing to the creation of thriving communities of practice.
Stage 4: Reflect
"Lots of ideas that I can now apply to my daily work."
"I have acquired techniques to centre myself and calm myself which I am sure I will use"
"Some very thoughtful and practical advice and techniques that can easily be implemented in my daily life and routine."
Connecting with Place: We immerse ourselves in the systems of Lawrenny through a guided natural systems-walk and foraging experience, making the connection between our needs and that of the non-human world.
How do I learn from my experience?
Shaun will guide you to transform the knowledge, awareness and insights from the previous session into day-to-day practice.
What needs to change for me to be well?
You will work with Shaun to cultivate a deeper sense of what ‘Being Well’ means to you. You will dive into the multiple dimensions of well-being, get clear sense of what it means to us individually and collectively, and develop practical ways to cultivate well-being in the rhythm of your daily lives.
A Lunch like no other: We gather to experience a meal foraged from the lands and estuary surrounding Lawrenny. An opportunity to connect with both the local eco-system and our fellow Companions.
Electives: Personalise your learning journey by joining one of a range of engaging and practical workshops linked to the Core 4.
Reflection: It is important to take a pause and to take stock. We invite you to choose a spot, to reflect and record your thoughts in your bespoke Companions Journal.
The Power of Storytelling: Let Phil take you on a powerful narrative journey into the art and practice of storytelling. Inspired by folk tales that connect the human and non-human worlds you will be invited to co-create you own powerful stories reflecting your journey; past, present and future.
Camp food and Camp fires: Time to settle down to some great organic and local food, chat, and enjoy the camp fire. Perhaps indulge in some star gazing or bat watching.
Day 2
Earl Morning Well-being Practice: Optional 'early-risers' well-being session, taking in the peace, tranquility, and views across the Cleddau estuary.
Journey Mapping: Following a hearty camp fire breakfast we invite you to reflect on your journey so far and share where you hope to take it across the days and months ahead.
Sustainable Practice - How can we reduce the impact our clothing has?: Dr Verity Jones will challenge your thinking in this interactive session. Can fast fashion be sustainable? Whilst re-purposing old pieces of fabric, we will discuss issues such as garment worker conditions and microplastics from (washing) clothing. We will look at how one might design/make a sustainable item of clothing, observing case studies of circular/sustainable fashion brands.
Activate Your Creativity: Al Brunker will guide us on a creative journey, taking us from the intrapersonal through interpersonal and into our natural surroundings. Set free of the normal confines of 'creative-less' thought you will be invited to think expansivley.
Future Foods Experience: In this pre-lunch session we will explore, debate and sample 'Future Foods'. But after the bugs we will ensure you enjoy some fresh food, fresh air and some reflection time.
Designing a More Sustainable Future: In this depth session Rob will facilitate the application of a Design Thinking process, helping you to design your personal Action-Impact Project. Drawing on your own reflections, the Core 4 and your goals for the future you will work with Companions to collaboratively create the change you would like to see in the world.
And Finally: We convene to reflect, share our stories and discuss the next stage of the programme journey; our Action -Impact Projects. We commit to make a change and to support one another as we strive to change our lived worlds.
Electives: Join a number of workshops designed to help you explore the Core 4 more broadly.
Work-in before we Work-out: We start our Well-being journey with Shaun, learning how to tune into to the needs of our Head, Heart and Body.
Day 1
Journey Mapping: Following a welcome breakfast, you will get to know your fellow Companions and begin to apply the principles of Collaborative Action. We will work together to reflect upon What Matters and map out the journey ahead of you.
Stage 3: Materialise
What might your Action-Impact project look like?
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Find below some examples of Action-Impact Projects and how they link to the Core Four.
On day 2 of the residential programme we work with participants, through the principles of Design Thinking, to design an Action-Impact Project around one aspect of the Core Four.
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With support from Champions and fellow Companions, participants design and then implement a project of interest to themselves and aligned with the Core Four..
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This is an opportunity for participants to take action, to make a change and above all enact the knowledge, skills and mindsets developed through the programme.
Design Thinking Process
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Empathise
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Define
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Ideate
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Prototype
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Test
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Implement
Can the teaching of mathematics be improved through technological tools?
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Participants: Established teacher, 18 mixed-ability students of Maths aged 12-13
Scale: Classroom level
Duration: Half an academic term
Data: Participant voice, assessment results.
Key Ideas: Metacognition; ICT; mixed-ability teaching; Mathematics; Assessment for Learning; classroom climate; sustainable learning.
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How can coaching strategies enable participant 'ownership' ?
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Participants: Established teacher, two trainee Secondary English teachers.
Scale: Department level
Duration: Half an academic term
Data: Participant voice
Key Ideas: Metacognition; coaching; ITE; target setting; classroom climate; sustainable practitioner development; educator agency.
How can I organise collaboration in my year 5 primary classroom?
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Participants: Year 5 teacher, teaching assistant, 24 students
Scale: Classroom level
Duration: 6 weeks
Data: Observation and student voice
Key Ideas: Collaboration; Group dynamics; mixed-ability teaching; sustainable learning; sustainable students engagement.
How can I better manage my own physical well-being?
Participants: Non teaching participant
Scale: Personal level
Duration: 4 weeks
Data: Reflective journaling
Key Ideas: Well-being; health & nutrition; sustainable action.
Stage 2: Explore
Our 2 day residential programme, hosted at our site in Lawrenny, Pemborkeshire, provides a range of opportunities designed to enable participants to explore the Cymbrogi Core Four in greater depth. Through experiential, collaborative and applied applications of the Core Four participants build a personal understanding of sustainable action. We also guarantee time, space and an opportunity reflect upon 'What Matters' to you within the context of the Core Four.
Across Stage 3 we support you, as mentors and coaches, to reflect upon your Action -Impact journey and how you are developing as an empowered practitioner.
Ongoing journaling and reflection enables participants to connect their experiences with their growth as a practitioner of sustainable action, at both the intra and interpersonal levels. A reflective learner is an empowered learner.
Stage 4 culminates in opportunities to share your reflections with an ever larger audience. This includes an opportunity to share your reflections with our online community and through our annual Festival of Learning.
"Lots of ideas that I can now apply to my daily work."
Stage 4: Reflect
"Some very thoughtful and practical advice and techniques that can easily be implemented in my daily life and routine."
