Charlie has loved the outdoors all her life. As a child she loved helping her Dad grow plants, tomatoes and fruit in the garden and spent a lot of time outdoors playing, walking and on family days out. Charlie first moved into a cottage with a garden of her own in 2001 and loved reading lots of gardening and nutrition books and learning how to grow vegetables and gardening organically with her young daughter. Years later, her relationship with plants has developed as she has completed training in permaculture, nutrition and herbal medicine.
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Charlie loves to be outdoors with her family, walking, hiking, cycling, camping, travelling and visiting new places. Charlie aims to walk in nature every day to nurture her own health and well-being. Her self-care practice also includes yoga, yin yoga, meditation, breathwork, journaling and daily affirmations.
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Charlie is a Montessori Teacher and Yoga Teacher. Having begun working in an after school club at age 14, Charlie went on to complete a Level 2 NVQ Childcare qualification at college. She later continued her education studying Level 3 NVQ Children's Care Learning & Development, an Early Years Foundation Degree and Montessori Teacher training. Charlie now has over 30 year's experience working with children and families in childcare settings, international schools, holiday clubs, after school clubs, youth groups, toddler groups, nanny roles and children's social care.
For nearly a decade Charlie ran an outdoor focused home-based nursery & forest school early years setting. She is proud to have achieved an Outstanding Ofsted inspection in 2014, which made it into the local newspapers.
When she began running the nursery in 2008 and accessing relevant training and development, Charlie learned about Forest School, Scandinavian education and the benefits of outdoor learning for children. This resonated strongly with her love of the outdoors, nature and plants, along with her knowledge of child development and love of yoga, mindfulness and well-being. She began reading on the subject, enabling her to put the theory she learned straight into practice within her setting. This is when she also learned about Montessori education and the Reggio Emilia approach. Charlie completed a short course on Reggio Emilia, and later went on to complete Montessori teacher training with Montessori Centre International, completing her year of teaching placement at Henley Montessori School. Charlie ran her Nursery following a combination of Montessori, Reggio Emilia and Forest School theory, employing Level 3 Forest School Leaders to run weekly sessions and being outdoors daily, all year round. Charlie loved taking the children for regular nature walks and particularly enjoyed developing the garden at the nursery, which included a tree house, a mud kitchen, raised veg beds, guinea pigs and chickens.
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While running the nursery Charlie supported many parents with day-to-day parenting issues and worked closely with parents to provide consistency between home and nursery.
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After closing her Nursery in 2017, Charlie taught at Casa dei Bambini Warsaw Montessori School. Charlie returned to the UK at the end of 2018 where she worked with parents, supporting and advocating in children's social care for three years, before moving to the Forest of Dean in 2021.
While working in children's social care, Charlie saw how stressed, drained and burnt out parents can become through lack of appropriate, nurturing support and community, when going through difficult or traumatic times. She became passionate about supporting the well-being of parents alongside developing their parenting skills. Having always found yoga and mindfulness a fantastic nurturing, self-care practice, she trained as a yoga teacher, completing 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training (Hatha Vinyasa) & 95 Hour Children & Family YTT. Then later completing 85 Hour Prenatal and 45 Hour Postnatal YTT in 2021. All Charlie's yoga training is accredited by Yoga Alliance through registered yoga schools. Charlie teaches yoga as part of HARE's wellness retreats and workshops.
The aims and ethos of HARE are born out of a combination of Charlie's knowledge of child development theory and passion to support parents' well-being. Combined with Susie's knowledge and experience with Forest School and outdoor learning. Along with Georgie's passion for traditional crafts and land-based skills. We create services which support children and family well-being through crafts, mindfulness and connection to nature following Forest School principles. Our team is woven together with our individual values, our shared love of nature, hiking, growing and foraging and our shared goals of creating a supportive community, through outdoor learning, which improves well-being. Charlie feels honoured and thankful to be part of such an amazing and talented team.
Read more about how HARE Forest School CIC was created in our blog post Synchronicity with the Seasons. Read more about HARE's aims in our Mission Statement.
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Additional Training:
Live Enhanced DBS
Outdoor First Aid 16 Hour (+F and Paediatric)
Safeguarding Level 1
Safeguarding Level 2
Child Protection Inter Agency Level 3
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