Caroline set up The Hive in 2014 when she couldn’t find outdoor activities for her son that were truly modern.
As an experienced media professional, primary school Community Governor and Fellow of the RSA, she recognised that the growing disconnect between “nature skills” and “21st century skills” wasn’t serving children well. Caroline wanted to provide a place where kids could get their hands dirty, learn through doing, experiment with many different types of outdoor activities through ambitious projects, in nature and with technology!
5 years on, The Hive's innovative curriculum still very much focuses on imagination, project-based learning, collaboration and problem-solving to stretch the realm of “outdoor education”. With 6 sites around London, The Hive continues to attract facilitators who have the passion and knowledge to inspire the next generation!
Madeleine is an artist, theatre-maker and facilitator whose training and background in theatre, education and youth work has set her up perfectly for her exciting role developing Stories and Adventure Missions with The Hive.
Madeleine graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2015, and since then has worked with children and young people both in schools and wider community settings, facilitating arts projects rooted in drama, participation and fun. More recently, Madeleine has set up the children’s theatre company The Fayre Players that strives to bring imaginative and captivating storytelling into unexpected places.
Joining in 2017 as a facilitator, Madeleine now has fun developing gripping stories, quests and narratives for Hive participants to explore!
Nikki is a qualified primary school teacher who has taught in a variety of primary schools in London for 20 years, as a classroom teacher and subject leader. More recently she has been working as a nursery practitioner within outdoor nursery settings. She is a Level 3 Forest school practitioner with a certificate in Outdoor First Aid and Paediatric First Aid.
Her passion is driven by supporting children and adults to experience the benefits of regular learning experiences within a local natural environment. She loves being in a woodland space and enjoys helping others discover the beauty and joy of being part of that natural world using exploration and self directed play. Nikki is driven by the belief that we can all become the resilient, courageous and lifelong learners we would all like to be and that a life outdoors can play a fundamental part of helping us on that journey.
Alice is a graduate from Central St Martins where she achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Performance and Design Practice. Alice is now a professional set and experience designer and one half of the installation duo Abby and Alice. She spends most of her time creating site-specific sets and interactive experiences: taking theories from games and applying them to physical spaces. She likes making environments that people can be in, that have stories and that rely on audiences being active within a space. She particularly enjoys developing these experiences with children and young people.
At The Hive Alice is responsible for planning all our Makers Lab missions, as well as training and supporting our teams of makers-facilitators. She also enjoys working with our campers on ambitious projects!
Qita has been leading Forest School classes since 2016, working with early years children in Chiswick. She developed her own creative forest school curriculum using her theatre and arts background, including natural element puppet making and interactive storytelling adventures in local woodlands. Qita has been a key member of The Hive team since Easter 2018 as both a Camp Director of Eltham College and Lead Facilitator, we look forward to her returning for new missions in the coming year!
Charlotte is a community artist, who works with a broad range of materials to offer structured and highly creative programmes designed to support experiential learning. Since graduating in 2010 with a BA in Painting from UAL, Charlotte has led a number of art based programmes with organisations such as the October Gallery, Orleans House Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery and the City of London Festival. She has extensive facilitation experience with children, having delivered both bespoke workshops and enrichment programmes in schools.
Having joined The Hive in 2016 originally as a lead facilitator, Charlotte now leads the development of all our Visual Arts missions, from outdoor installations through to printing and film, encouraging the use of nature-based materials.
All our facilitators are DBS checked and experienced in running workshops for children. All camps also include several First Aiders, with a mix of outdoor and paediatric first aid experience.
