ELF - The Ethereal Learning Foundation

31/05/2026

Who’s joining us?

Excited to be starting new groups.

A healthy balance of indoor and outdoor learning focusing on six week blocks to develop different skills and achieve badges. We are starting with the design badge.

Access to woodland, fields, streams, farms - it’s a stunning outdoor environment and we are also planning lots of trips out.

Spaces are limited to give the group more individual time, led by two experienced educators who value exploration, investigation and discovery learning.

For more information or to book a space please contact Deb or Kate

[email protected]
[email protected]

29/05/2026

This was a comment that was made about us this week. It wasn’t really a criticism, more an observation from a parent who is considering home education and their child attending ELF.

No we don’t teach times tables or maths in the formal way because we aren’t a school and we have different values and beliefs about how children learn.

Do our children experience maths or have the opportunity to develop mathematical skills?
Absolutely ALL THE TIME!

Maths is a part of everything we do.

How many chairs do we need for lunch, split yourselves into groups of 3, what is the capacity of this jug, how much will that activity cost, do we need to make that longer or shorter, which shape have you made, let’s add up our scores-how can we do that, how many minutes left until lunch….

The children then actively find a way of working it out whether that be asking for help, working together, using a whiteboard to make jottings….they find their way that works for them.

I could give many more examples but you get the idea.

28/05/2026

Lots of happy faces today!
We continued our sports day activities, welcomed another new person to ELF who enjoyed painting and after lunch we investigated the raincloud experiment (and had great fun playing with the shaving foam when we’d finished!).

27/05/2026

🌟Sports day fun - sack race, egg and spoon race, obstacle course, skipping, three legged race - teamwork, collaboration, supporting each other.
🌟Making our own boats together - designing, cutting, sticker fun, rolls & rolls of tape, funnels - helping each other, enthusiasm, problem solving, ideas.
🌟Posters related to endangered species - one of the children gave the group instructions for an activity they had thought of themselves. How to design a poster to encourage others to protect animals! Such a fabulous idea!

26/05/2026

We talk about taking it one step at a time quite frequently at ELF.

When problems or activities that the children are exploring start to feel overwhelming then we as adults initiate the small step approach
- “so what’s the first little thing we need to do then?, “where do we start?”

Breaking it down into small, achievable steps immediately makes it more manageable and removes the impossible mountain climb.
It’s also such a useful life skill to learn.

24/05/2026

I often get asked questions about the education system, schools and what my views are.
It’s important to understand that I worked in the education system for 28 years so have firsthand experience of what it is like, how it impacts young people, the constraints that are imposed on our children (and the teachers).

The system is outdated and does not work for our children. Some are able to comply and conform, most are not.
Change needs to happen.

22/05/2026

Loving the designs on our new T-shirts!

Thanks Kate 🥰

22/05/2026

Which foil boat design is strongest?
How many cubes can it hold and still float?
What patterns can we see on this stone if we clean it?
Why do you think this object floats?
Will the bottle full of air sink?

💦So much investigation, exploration and discovery!💦

We also added to our story books that we are creating with a friend and as the sun was shining we spent time on the park.

If you would like your child to join us then please contact Deb for a visit.

21/05/2026

Just a reminder this is tomorrow!

Drop in coffee morning at St. Mary's Church, Arnold

Come and find out about our home Ed learning provision and how we can support with SEND services.

Our aim is to create a community space for parents who home educate and/or have children with additional needs to explore how we can help.

It’s also great to have a cuppa and a chat!

21/05/2026

Continuing our theme of water-
💦Experimenting with marbling techniques
💦Reading instructions to make origami boats
💦Predicting which objects float/sink and why
💦Cleaning out and filling the water tray
💦Choosing small objects to freeze in ice cubes
💦Making boats out of paper, cubes, cardboard, lego

And we also shared some books with one of our mums who popped in for a couple of hours.

In the evening our founder Deb did a Q&A session all about ELF - The Ethereal Learning Foundation and home education- a busy, fabulous day! (Thanks to Jemma Lee Brookes-Nuckowski🙏🏻)