“A playground where kids can explore life outside the exam factory” is the tagline for Dream Explorers, an event coming to Brighton this Sunday (24th April). Launching this weekend, Dream Explorers aims to help children aged 10-16 be curious about the world around them.
The event is free and will allow children to “discover what makes them tick and be inspired to learn free range life lessons that are not normally covered in school.” It will also include guest speakers and performances from the likes of a spoken word poet and an explorer. Created by Tom Harris and Dawn Banks, Dream Explorers stemmed from a frustration with the mainstream education system. On their website, Dawn writes “Secondary School didn’t work for me because the system favoured academic ability, which wasn’t my strength. I was disengaged and branded a troublemaker” Tom is a teacher who was also frustrated with the system, so decided to create a new one. He writes “I want to plant seeds so that powerful, meaningful, inspiration, brilliant ideas are born out of people who were given the opportunity to have free range lessons at the right time in their life. I want young people to reflect on what is important to them and what makes them happy, and then understand how to go places with this knowledge.”
Children will be able to take part in a range of interesting workshops including Bollywood dancing, organic chocolate tasting and life lessons. They can also enjoy talks by poet Raymond Antrobus and ‘explorer of nature’ Tom Hart Dyke. The event is merely a taster event and is hoped that it will be the start of a wider network which will branch into after school and weekend workshops as well as summer camps and, if successful, gap year trips. The event will be held at the Ballroom in the King Alfred Leisure Centre and you can reserve a place for your child here.
Holly Martin
feature image: Owen Allen via the Creative Commons license
