Little Forest Education
The purpose of Little Forest Education is to provide transformative leadership and specialist consultancy services for education partners who share a vision of:
Regenerative learning for the well-being of all nature's children
It seems that there is a growing movement of people, organisations and even nations coalescing around a vision for education that promotes well-being for all. Jen Nuin Smith, Founder and Democratic Educator at Little Forest, works with a number of charities, businesses and organisations to further this vision.
Trustee and Coordinator for Human Scale Education, 2022 - Present
Jen is Trustee and Coordinator at Human Scale Education, a small charity with a big mission to widen access to education which nurtures individuals, communities and the environment. As Coordinator, Jen created a dynamic new vision and strategy for the charity which has breathed new life into HSE's important work to support and develop the sector.
DfE Sustainability Leadership Digital Hub, working with Earth Warriors Global and the Foundation for Education Development, for the Department for Education, 2023
Jen was content author for the Sustainability Leadership Digital Hub, a toolkit developed to support Sustainability Leads working in all education settings in the UK, from Early Years to Further Education, to develop and deliver Climate Action Plans across the domains of curriculum, campus, culture and community. Jen wrote the web content, gathered resources, assessed their quality, wrote summaries of each resource and provided tags and links. The toolkit will help to integrate climate and sustainability education across the whole curriculum from Early Years to age 18.
Climate and Sustainability Curriculum Maps, working with Earth Warriors Global and the Foundation for Education Development, for the Department for Education, 2023
Jen created Climate and Sustainability Curriculum Maps which will be published on the Sustainability Leadership Digital Hub to support educators to integrate climate and sustainability across every subject in the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum from Key Stages 1 to Key Stage 5. These curriculum maps show where climate change and sustainability are currently covered by the National Curriculum, makes suggestions for integrating climate education into the current curriculum and highlights the related knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that children should have in each year group. For Key Stage 5, Jen identified the top six competencies which young people need as they enter adulthood.
Curriculum Design and Mapping for Earth Warriors Global
Jen co-authored the Earth Warriors curriculum, the world’s first comprehensive climate education curriculum for ages 3-11 years, which takes a positive and age appropriate approach. As a subject matter expert, Jen designed, researched and wrote four carefully sequenced modules which are both based on climate science and inspire positive climate action. Jen's modules have been peer reviewed by climate science academics at Harvard and Stanford University and are currently being taught in a growing number of schools in the UK and across the world.
Rainbow Stories Exhibition with The Mill Primary Academy, Room 13, Murmuration Arts and Crawley Museum
"Know your story and know that it's important." Delita Martin
As Inclusion and Diversity Lead, Jen created a bespoke Inclusion and Diversity curriculum for The Mill Primary Academy, which created a tangible shift in culture as pupils glowed with pride in their identity. Jen led the project from start to finish including the formation of a deep community collaboration between every pupil, their parent carers, Room 13, Murmuration Arts and Crawley Museum. The project culminated in a whole school exhibition in which every child's artwork was exhibited and celebrated.
The Mill Community Cookbook for The Mill Primary Academy
The Mill Community Cookbook is a transformative community project led by Jen. This time the project was designed and delivered during lock-down to give pupils quality time with their family, the inspiration to create something delicious and the opportunity to be a part of something bigger. Many families took part and in total, pupils contributed over 80 recipes which were collated to create The Mill Community Cookbook. At the end of lock-down and just in time for Eid, Jen organised a Great Big Community Cook Day when families chose a new recipe from the book to try at home. When children returned to school, many pupils were keen to bring in samples of their wonderful recipes, much to the delight of the teachers!