The Flourishing Learning Network

Helping children and young people widen their worlds.

Sometimes a child’s world can gradually become smaller. We create welcoming, low-pressure opportunities to reconnect with people, interests, community and, over time, learning.

Our mission

Different children thrive in different environments. We’re here to widen the ways children can learn, connect and flourish.

Children and young people can be capable, curious and engaged learners when the environment and opportunities are right for them. We create and connect welcoming spaces, practical experiences and relationships that help make more of those opportunities possible.

For children, young people and families. A diagnosis is not required.

Discover Flourishing Start a conversation

Currently being established as a charitable organisation

Our charitable aim

To improve the lives and future opportunities of children and young people who experience barriers to education, community participation or social connection by creating opportunities which strengthen belonging, confidence, capability, independence and engagement with learning and wider life.

Why Flourishing was established

Re-engaging with learning begins with recognising strengths and abilities, experiencing success and building the confidence to try something a little beyond a child’s comfort zone, in a safe and supportive space.

Flourishing began with a simple concern. For some children and young people, anxiety, neurodivergence, difficult experiences, social isolation or a mismatch between their needs and the environments around them can gradually make their world smaller.

School may become difficult. Friendships reduce. Activities stop. Confidence can fall. Families can find themselves carrying more and more.

Yet these same young people may thrive when they experience trusted relationships, meaningful activity, practical opportunities, a sense of belonging and adults who genuinely believe in what they can do.

Flourishing was established to create more of those opportunities earlier, widening the routes back into connection, confidence, participation and possibility.

What we see on the surface may be only the tip of the iceberg. We ask what is making participation difficult, what already helps and what could create another point of connection.

Why Flourishing exists →

High expectations, high support

We believe in what children and young people can achieve. We offer encouragement, choice and support so they can take manageable steps towards new experiences and greater independence, at a pace that feels right for them.

Small steps towards independence

In a small American study published in 2024, Camilo Ortiz and Matthew Fastman worked with four families whose children experienced anxiety. Children chose enjoyable, developmentally challenging activities to undertake without parental help. The researchers reported reductions in anxiety and avoidance during the intervention. These promising early findings need testing in larger studies; they do not establish that the approach improves school attendance.

This research informs our interest in achievable independence and a growing sense of “I can”. At Flourishing, opportunities begin with each child’s interests, readiness and support needs.

Read the study: Ortiz & Fastman (2024) →

A novel independence intervention to treat child anxiety: A nonconcurrent multiple baseline evaluation. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 105, 102893.

The journey to this point

Flourishing did not begin as a finished model.

The idea has changed through conversation, challenge and listening. That is part of how we want Flourishing to continue growing.

A question

Could earlier, more practical and relational support help before difficulties become deeply established?

A different kind of place

The first idea centred on a flexible learning environment where young people could reconnect, experience success and learn differently.

Listening widened the idea

Conversations with families, teachers, SEND professionals and community members shifted the focus from creating one place to strengthening connection and opportunity around young people.

A community vision

Flourishing evolved towards growing a young person’s tribe, widening their world and building confidence through relationships, experiences and community.

Starting carefully

We are now establishing the charity, building governance and beginning with small community activity so we can learn before we grow.

Listening. Learning. Building trust. Testing what helps. Growing from there.

Who it’s for

A child does not need a diagnosis to belong here.

Flourishing is for children and young people whose opportunities, relationships or connection to education and community have become more limited.

The children we welcome may have recognised SEND needs, a diagnosis or an EHCP — or none of these. Some attend school and others currently find accessing school difficult. What matters is the opportunity to learn, connect and flourish, not a label or attendance figure.

Some may find school difficult. Others attend school but struggle with friendships, anxiety or confidence. Some have SEND or additional needs; others do not.

We welcome different starting points: watching first, staying close to a parent or carer, or managing a short visit. Participation can grow through trust and interest.

More about who it’s for →

Starting small. Growing carefully.

What we do

We are beginning with connection events and shared experiences, listening to children and families as the offer grows.

Connection events

Relaxed gatherings with creative and practical activity, outdoor exploration, shared interests and opportunities for families to meet.

Positive experiences without pressure
Increased social connection and finding their tribe
A welcoming community around families

Widening opportunities

As we develop, we aim to offer small-group experiences shaped by children’s interests, helping them build skills, confidence and independence.

Practical and creative learning
Volunteering and community experiences
Trips, projects and real world opportunities

Sidekicks

A future programme of trained, supported companions who help children and young people grow their tribe and widen their world.

A trusted adult who gets to know them
Training, DBS checks and ongoing support
Clear boundaries and safeguarding throughout

The principles we want to protect

What matters to us

Connection

Relationships come first.

Belonging

Young people should not have to earn their right to belong.

Capability

Create opportunities for young people to experience what they can do.

Agency

Young people should have meaningful choice and influence.

Who we are

Meet our trustees

Professional expertise, community knowledge and lived experience sit alongside one another. Our trustees help Flourishing grow carefully while keeping children and families at the centre.

Flourishing trustees gathered around a table at their first trustee meeting, wearing matching Flourishing tree T-shirts — Our first trustee meeting

Founder and trustee

Jane Robinson

Jane brings more than two decades of experience in teaching, SEND, school leadership and specialist advisory work. She founded Flourishing to bring people together around children whose needs and opportunities do not always fit the support available. Her own experience of dyslexia also shapes her belief in different routes to success.

Trustee

Alexandra

Alexandra is a teacher with a strong interest in psychology, inclusion and children’s emotional wellbeing. She is developing her expertise towards educational psychology and brings lived experience as a parent of a neurodivergent child.

Trustee

Emma

Emma brings a background in social work and education welfare and currently works as a teaching assistant in a school. As a parent of two neurodivergent children, she understands how education, family life and wider support systems intersect.

Trustee

Hazel

Hazel is a teacher and has experience as a Brownie and Scout leader. She brings lived experience as a parent of a neurodivergent child and values the confidence and belonging children can find beyond the classroom.

Trustee

Victoria

Victoria brings experience in television, production and property management, alongside parenting neurodivergent children. Her private-sector perspective and organisational experience help turn Flourishing’s ideas into practical, sustainable activity.

Trustee

Colette

Colette is a mum to four daughters and part of a complex neurodivergent family of six, so neurodivergence and mental health challenges are both a lived experience and special interest of hers.

She brings 25 years’ experience from a corporate accounting and finance career, alongside more recent developing expertise in ADHD, autism and neurodiversity family coaching. She oversees Flourishing’s accounts and finances and supports funding applications.

She is passionate about helping children and young people feel understood, build confidence and find their place in the world.

Trustee

Max

Max is a trained paediatric nurse and brings experience across children’s mental health, education and outdoor learning, including work within CAMHS and as a director of The Holly Project.

He also brings lived experience of supporting children with SEND and emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA). This combination of professional and personal understanding helps him recognise the challenges families face and the value of trusted relationships, practical experiences and opportunities to succeed.

Max supports Flourishing’s vision of helping children and young people build confidence, discover their strengths and feel connected to the world around them.

Read our story →

Events and families

Somewhere comfortable enough to be.

Our first Connection Event took place in Ditchling on 27 October 2026. Ten children, two siblings and ten parents came together to explore, create and connect in a welcoming environment.

What we observed raised an important question: what becomes possible when children have the right conditions to explore, participate and try something new?

Read our first event story

Please contact us to ask about future activities or discuss access needs. An enquiry does not confirm a place; we will explain availability and arrangements directly.

Ask about an event

Prepare for your visit and view the photo map

Safeguarding and raising a concern

Preparing for your visit

Knowing what to expect

Uncertainty can make visiting somewhere new feel difficult. Ahead of our pilot event, we shared a photo map, parent and carer guidance, and a children’s social story to help families picture the setting, understand what would happen and explore the choices available to them.

Creating greater predictability is part of our approach: helping children and young people feel comfortable enough to take a manageable step into something new, with support around them.

The map shows arrival and parking areas, toilets and handwashing, places to explore, optional activities and areas that are out of bounds.

Open the full-size photo map

Download visit guidance and children’s social story (Word)

The guidance explains our relaxed, child-led approach. The social story introduces arrival, the welcome team, animals, optional activities, fire and food, and leaving when ready. Families can share as much or as little as feels helpful.

Pilot-event map: work in progress and not to scale. Please follow the latest information from the organisers and on-site guidance.

Ditchling photo map showing two car parks, the main visitor route, toilets and handwashing, main field, animal and play areas, café and farm shop, and the working farm marked out of bounds. — Photo map shared to help families prepare for the Ditchling pilot.

Small
moments.
Big impact.

Try something new

Share an interest

Feel connected

A future Flourishing strand

Could you be someone’s Sidekick?

Some children and young people need to grow their tribe, their sense of belonging and connection. A Sidekick would be a reliable, interested adult who spends time with a young person, shares interests and helps widen their world.

You would not need to have all the answers. You would need to be kind, reliable and ready to show up.

Sidekicks will only launch when the charity has the right governance, training, safer recruitment and safeguarding arrangements in place.

Help build the village

Flourishing is at the beginning.

We are bringing together people who believe in children’s strengths and the difference that encouragement, opportunity and support can make.

FamiliesHear about early community activitiesGet in touch → VolunteersShare time, skills or local connectionsGet in touch → PartnersExplore ways to work togetherStart a conversation → SupportersOffer skills, materials, space or funding supportStart a conversation →

Follow our journey

See Flourishing as it grows.

We are sharing the conversations, ideas, community connections and early steps that are shaping Flourishing.

@flourishinglearningnetwork

Stay connected

Interested in Flourishing?

Whether you are a parent or carer, volunteer, professional, supporter or local partner, we would love to hear from you.

Email Flourishing

flourishinglearningnetwork@gmail.com