A new private school in Chatham-Kent is offering an outdoor alternative.
As we first told you back in February, Freedom Collective offers student-led learning, and will be welcoming students for the first time next week.
Meg Dunlop and Elizabeth Downey have been working on opening the school, located on 78 acres of land on Ridge Line, halfway between Blenheim and Ridgetown, for a few years now – long before the new realities of COVID-19.
Dunlop says the pandemic may have a bit of a silver lining when it comes to how we think about a lot of things, including education.
“I think we all had this time to pause and take a look at things and how we were doing things and how life was going and how hectic things were, and maybe make some changes in a lot of things we were doing,” Dunlop says. “I think school has fallen into that, there certainly seems to be more discussion about being outside more and being outdoors and naturally we’re sort of attractive for that reason.”
Dunlop say their style of teaching focuses on the individual needs of each child.
“There are some children who just don’t feel like they fit in to the box that the tradition school system might like them to. So we’re looking to provide a space to really find who they are, explore their creativity, explore their passions, and really fuel that life-long love of learning.”
Downey says it allows students to follow the curriculum at their own pace.
“When a student is ready to learn multiplication, for example, they make that a priority,” Downey explains. “Let’s say the student loves dinosaurs. We can infuse that multiplication goal through his or her love of dinosaurs to the point where it makes sense for that student. It’s not just memorizing, it actually is something that’s almost ingrained in their DNA.”
The school will include a large outdoor component and will be based on a mix of Montessori education, “unschooling” and home-schooling, as well as traditional education.
Classes, which will be offered largely outdoors begin September 8th, but registration will remain open for at least a few weeks beyond that.
“Whatever system a child chose or their parents chose, they might get a few weeks in and think maybe I didn’t make the right choice for who my kid is, or maybe this isn’t what I thought it was going to be,” Downey says.
Above all else, Dunlop says they hope to inspire a life-long love of learning in children, empower them to know they can take control of their own education, and ultimately create better citizens of the world.
The school offers a maximum capacity of 15 this year, allowing for appropriate physical distancing and more one-on-one learning.
For more details, visit freedomcollectiveck.com.
