And the story so far goes like this….

Archimedes was founded by dynamic social entrepreneur Sarah Blackwell and in 2014, celebrates its 13th anniversary with a launch into its fourth continent- Asia.

Back in 2000, Sarah became disillusioned with the way her dream job as environmental education development officer at a Derbyshire outdoor education centre was going.

“People’s understanding of environmental education seemed to lurch between pond dipping and governmental sustainable development policies” remembers Sarah. “I was on a course on tree felling with the British trust for Conservation Volunteers when I met a Forest Schools Practitioner and then went and saw Forest schools in practice with three and four year olds in the woods and made the decision to quit. I booked a Forest School course in Gloucester with my guru, Gordon Woodall, and in 2001, together with a colleague, I founded Archimedes Training to train adults to lead future forest schools”

“We named it after the mathematician’s famous saying, “Give me a leaver big enough and I can move the earth”. We really believed in the Forest Schools ethos we had experienced and thought it could have that life changing effect on people. We leased 155 acres of land in four different woods around Sheffield from the Forestry Commission, Sheffield City Council and the Peak National Park in Derbyshire to start. That first year we ran the business from the attic and with 40 young people on five projects”

“By 2002 we were running Forest Schools training projects all over Derbyshire, Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Leeds, East Riding, as far South as Stratford. We had outgrown the spare room when Sheffield Council’s Ted Talbot told us about the Wood Lane Countryside Centre’s refurbishment under the Big Lottery. We rented a room and Archimedes grew into its role developing its intellectual property which has formed the basis of all Forest Schools training throughout the world.”

By 2006 we were the largest provider of Forest Schools training in the United Kingdom, offering accredited qualifications under the former Open College
Network to level 4. We were working for independent schools and nurseries, local education authorities the local national parks and the Welsh Forestry Commission delivering training 36 weeks a year all over the country.”

At a point in 2008, Sarah expanded the range further.

“We set up the Dangerous Adventure Club brand”, Sarah recalls. “We ran birthday parties, a successful holiday club and trialled a breakfast club in Ecclesall Woods, Sheffield.”

Over the past five years, Archimedes has grown exponentially. Sarah now finds herself writing qualifications at the highest levels, working all over the country and now in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

In the latter part of 2013, Sarah split the company into two very distinct and separate parts: Archimedes Earth and Forest Schools Education.

She handed over the reigns of Forest Schools Education to Paul Moseley who became its first Executive Director. Forest Schools Education is a not for profit organisation licensed to use Archimedes intellectual property and training methodology.

Up to and including this year our unique course materials will have trained over 7000 people around the globe. The Archimedes training materials are unique and different from all other Forest School courses and offer the biggest range of Forest Schools and outdoor learning training materials in the world.

It is used for training staff operating in countries as diverse as Canada, America, Portugal, France, Spain, Norway, Hungary, Dubai, Malaysia, China, New Zealand, Australia and now America.

“People are tracking us down on the internet, coming over to Britain to be trained, then asking us to go over and train more Forest School exponents- it’s fantastic. They say they come to see us as our reputation is simply the best in the business. We have the most courses in the most places at the highest qualification levels at the best value – and that feels really good!”

As for the future, Sarah has big dreams. Archimedes has directly, and indirectly, worked with hundreds of thousands of families so far and we want to touch the lives of thousands more.

Sarah says “We want to set up many more Forest and Beach Schools for young people like my own son, with learning disabilities. We recently launched Beach Schools for coastal areas and there are more programs in the pipeline for urban areas. I’d love to see Training Centres running on a Forest Schools ethos giving the users the life skills, confidence and competence they so desperately need to function in todays’ society. I have recently established a project called FOCAL – which is a woodland learning centre for adults with autism and learning disabilities. We have developed a woodland space in sheffield and built a wood cabin for our project to run from. It is a beautiful place to be!”

Archimedes were invited by the British Embassy in Australia and UK Trade and Investment to launch Archimedes Training in Australia in 2011. “We had had a lot of international interest in our courses and we were really excited to be invited by UKTI to attend a trade delegation to Sydney”

The first courses in Australia, which were re-branded as Archimedes Bush Schools, were a huge success. “All the studies show how children during Forest Schools learn to be so creative, use their imaginations, develop strengths like social and emotional self-reliance and problem solving skills in this way and this is completely relevant to all children across the world. The first Bush Schools courses really proved that although our environments can differ quite considerably across the globe, the ethos and philosophy of Forest Schools can be adapted to suit these differing environmental and cultural considerations.”

Sarah commented “What I live for are lives being changed, or what’s the point? I have an amazing team of dedicated people behind me, I am planning on writing ‘the Archimedes book’ on Forest Schools, I have survived so many life traumas and kept going, my children are thriving and I have the best job in the world. I consider myself blessed.”