meet our team & trainee ~ anand

in anticipation of our forest school leader training and traineeship, we are sharing the stories of some of our trainees and what inspired them to embark on this training!
anand is a past trainee who undertook our traineeship and became a part of the kin team during the early stages of his training.

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hello there, i’m anand. i’m a forest school practitioner who is interested in patiently cultivating transformative community spaces that enliven us to the wild world around us. i also make playful art experiments that grapple with what entangles me in this city life and the natural world where i find peace.in this blog i’d like to share a little bit about  the kin level 3 forest school leader traineeship and how it has enchanted, enriched, and transformed me as a person as well as what i offer to the world.

prior to the traineeship my work consisted of curious yet disparate strands of practice that i yearned to bring together. i taught history and social sciences to primary and secondary students, i organised close-knit nature connection community groups, i created art inspired and enlivened by the natural world, and i tended to the land at my local nature reserve. how could i possibly bring all of this together, in a way that would enrich each of these aspects and allow me to make money doing what i love? 

it was in this conundrum, in a time of ceaseless mental and existential gymnastics that i heard about forest school. a friend of mine who was on that year’s training cohort, sheyamali, sent me kin’s outreach post for a fully funded l3 forest school leader traineeship. my ears pricked up like a fox’s. forest, school, leader. what was that? as i looked into it more and more my interest grew deeper and deeper. words like ‘nature pedagogy’, ‘communities of learning and healing’, ‘spiritual unfoldment’ sprang up as i researched. i was in. i wanted to be a forest school leader!

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anand (left) with mentor rosalyn and facilitator chris holland (right)

without the fully funded traineeship there was no way at all that i would have trained as a forest school leader, and so there was no way that i would be where i am now: regularly working across multiple nature education organisations, bringing the skills and confidence that i developed during the training. forest school level 3 training is notoriously expensive, and the world of nature connection / ecology / land work is notoriously lacking in poc faces and stories: not a good combination. but the work is important, and these barriers make the work particularly vital. this traineeship is an example of an organisation putting their values into action, to redistribute wealth, experience, and opportunities to those who have been historically marginalised by nature-related spaces.

i applied for the traineeship, and i felt the warmth of kin’s vibe from the get go. when else has an interview ever been a kind and loving experience? i knew from then that i was in the right place with the right people. i was elated when i found out that i got the fully funded internship! the course of my year ahead dramatically shifted. it really felt like an adventure lay ahead, and a beautiful adventure it was. an adventure where i would meet friends for life, discover curious green magical pockets of my city, and deepen my own connection with the majesty of the natural world.

the training was an incredible experience. i learnt incredible new survival skills like fire making, natural craft creation, tarp rigging, tool making, just to name a few. it opened my eyes to the world of nature pedagogy. i always knew the healing embrace of nature, we all do innately, but the course helped me to put a language to it and gave me the tools and framework to facilitate spaces where nature and humans can come into sacred relationship. this sounds all serious, and of course there is this deeper element, but it all happened through play! over the traineeship i truly reconnected to little anand, my inner child. the part of me that wants to run and skip and laugh for the sheer joy of it, and for all learning, healing, development, and relationships to stem from that vibrancy. as i played in the forest, i began to feel more connected to myself, my community, and the land - a feeling i had been craving for many many years.

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anand with mentor rosalyn at chris holland’s natural musicians & storytelling workshop hosted by kin

over the last year, since beginning my training, the forest is also becoming a more and more vivid place. that has been a priceless gift - trees are juicier, the sky is vaster, the soil is now bubbling! the wider journey of nature connection in my life that the forest school course sparked has enlivened my world and my spirits. as i breathe now, i breathe with a myriad of  beings across a multitude of worlds.

this has, of course, happened alongside other beautiful people and inspiring beings. rhiannon and misty welcomed me into kins’ embrace from the beginning. ros has taught me so so much about the forest, about being with children, about life in generally - i am so grateful to her. rich inspired me with his vibrant spirit - he injected my practice with his energy and kindness. i felt wren’s wisdom and compassion at times when i felt weak and lost. all the trainees, past and present (and i am sure future too), feel like a wonderful family of kind and curious folk who have somehow found each other dancing in the forest. i have made life-long friends for sure. 

i also want to take a moment to really recognise the fact that i feel that i have been really holistically supported throughout this journey as well. yes, the financial support of the traineeship is massive, it is essential, but it is just one aspect of the support i have felt. i’ve attended countless workshops free of charge to hone my practice with experts in their fields. i have been given work with kin (more on that below), feel recognised in my achievements, and supported in my growth and development towards fully leading a camp. i feel emotionally supported by co-facilitators who are also friends, who recognise that we come as we are, bringing our heart to training and work. i have been mentored by facilitators that i highly respect, feeling supported and motivated from day one. the financial support of the traineeship is just the beginning. 

often, when we embark on a training course, we don’t always actually end up with work at the end of it. the expectations going in are quickly extinguished once we are on the other side, once the buzz of the training fades. but this was not the case with kin’s traineeship. my willingness to learn and develop my practice as a forest school leader was recognised and cultivated from the start. after some work experience, i quickly picked up regular work on camps with kin. then after doing a mentor-supported internship later on, i quickly picked up a regular weekly facilitation role on the kin home ed group. and the work that has opened up to me doesn’t just stop with kin, i have been able to pick up work across different organisations too. i helped laura, an incredible fellow ex-kin trainee, begin a new forest school in forest gate’s up garden. i worked with the dim, whose friendship and support i have greatly appreciated, at the soanes centre. i went with tgc to out-of-town forest school residentials in kent and even did beach school with them in the south downs! recently i have begun working on their urban forest school project, facilitating sessions with the children of islington across the seasons. the traineeship has given me a way to tangibly support myself, doing what i love. 

and this just feels like the beginning of the journey. who knows where i will be lead next? who knows what opportunities lay ahead? as i walk this path, the friends, experiences, and learnings i have been touched with during my training will be with me every step of the way. the forest is listening!

full information about our forest school leader training here.

full information about our fully funded traineeship (includes the forest school leader training) here.

full information about our internship & work experience opportunitites here.

anand in the kin woods with mentor rosalyn and forest school leader cohort peer lucy