About

Engaging children in learning through adventure

We believe that every child can benefit emotionally, intellectually and physically by time spent in the great outdoors. We want to inspire every child to learn through adventure and give every parent and teacher an opportunity to be part of the experience.

We are Adventurers was founded in January 2013 by Forest School practitioner and former British soldier, Paul Wilcox and his wife Jennifer. They have three children Eamon, Orlaith and Oisin and live in Chorlton, Manchester.

OUR STORY

Paul Wilcox grew up building dens, climbing trees and finding his own adventures from dawn till dusk. He slept under canvas with cubs, played Swallows and Amazons with scouts before embarking on a 12 year adventure with the British Army.

As fatherhood beckoned he began to reflect on how different childhood had become. As a nation, we’ve never spent so much time indoors, advancing technology and changing values in society has brought us so much, but it has come at a cost.

Paul started We are Adventurers in 2013 to bridge the growing disconnect between children and their natural world. After studying the Forest School movement, Paul developed a child led learning programme that would inspire toddlers to teens to make lifelong connections to their outdoor world.

Through the adventure programme they would learn about nature, but they would also learn about themselves, building an understanding of how to evaluate risk, building communication skills within teams, and overcoming individual challenges in a way that builds their confidence, nurtures their own sense of self worth and builds emotional resilience.

Children come to us with different levels of abilities, some are high performers in the classroom, others don’t engage well with classroom learning. Most recently, we’ve been working with children on the autistic spectrum. The WAA programme gives every child the space to learn and develop at their own pace in even a very short period of time.

The We Are Adventurers programme now helps more than 10,000 children every year to engage in adventure through the combination of afterschool programmes, holiday clubs, in school programmes and special events across Manchester, Cheshire and Blackpool. We have the ambition, the team and the resources to be able to help even more.

Our team

Our core team are a blend of qualified teachers, outdoor instructors, forest school practitioners and second careerers who all share the same passion for engaging children with learning through adventure. All of our team are DBS checked, and first aid qualified and are fully risk assessed. To apply to join the team email paul@weareadventurers.co.uk

During holiday clubs and at Birthday Parties, our team expands to welcome support leaders who help deliver some of the low risk content under the supervision of the core team. These students return year after year, growing in confidence and ability and bolstering their CV for future applications. To apply to be a support leader email paul@weareadventurers.co.uk