4days
Integrative, holistic lessons
Head, heart and hands, in one classroom.
A human-centred learning experience
Talking Tree Hill Education
A long-term vision, starting Term 1, 2027.
We are starting with one class, one teacher and a handful of families, and we plan to grow slowly.
Chapter 01
Small by design
A school sized so every child is known.
A learning week
1day
Bush school immersion
A full day of learning outdoors, every week.
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One main teacher
One person who will know every child well.
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Several actively participating parents
Parents will share in the life of the school.
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Seven students to start, growing over time
We plan to add places gradually, not all at once.
Family at the heart
Parents and grandparents are part of the curriculum
They are essential here. Parents and grandparents will teach skills, explore alongside the children and guide them. We want children to feel at home, and to learn the way they would in homeschooling as well.
What can you bring to the kids today?
Tell usOur beginning
We are planting a new tree, with love and community grounding.
Every tall tree began as something you could hold in one hand. Ours begins with one teacher, seven children and the families standing around them. We will let it take root before we ask it to grow.
Chapter 02
How children learn
Head, heart and hands, outdoors and screen-free.
What the school is built on
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Holistic educational curriculum
We plan to draw on more than one tradition, in lessons that bring story, movement, art and practical work together and follow the rhythm of the day and the seasons.
- Steiner
- Montessori
- Ancient wisdom
- Regenerative principles
- Homeschooling
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Nature-based learning
One day each week is planned as bush school, where children will learn outdoors, and the weather, the land and the seasons will become part of the lesson.
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Hands and arts
Children will make, draw, paint, build and sing as part of everyday lessons, so that ideas are worked through with the hands as well as the head.
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Screen-free
Our classroom will have no screens, leaving the school day for books, conversation, making things and time outside with other children.
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Individual development
With seven students to start, we plan for the teacher to follow each child closely and set a pace that suits where that child is.
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STEAM and innovative thinking
Science, technology, engineering, arts and maths will be explored through questions, experiments and things children build themselves, with room to try, get it wrong and try again.
Other experiences to play around
Part of STEAM
3D printing
Children will turn their own ideas into objects they can hold, test and improve.
Part of hands and arts
Music
Singing, rhythm and wooden instruments such as the ukulele and the flute, woven through the week.
Part of hands and arts
Woodwork
Real tools, real timber and the patience to make something that lasts.
Part of nature-based learning
Regenerative agroforestry gardening
Children will plant, tend and harvest, and learn how a garden can feed the soil as well as the table.
Part of individual development
Meditation
Quiet moments in the day to breathe, notice and settle.
Body and movement
Sports
Running, climbing, throwing and playing together, outdoors as often as we can.
Chapter 03 · The founder
Kirsten Simmons
Founder and CEO of Talking Tree Hill.
Kirsten is a mother, registered teacher and child advocate for holistic wellbeing and planet kindness. She has been educating children and adults for more than 20 years in Europe, Asia and Australasia.
Raised on the family farm in South Canterbury, she founded Talking Tree Hill, an outdoor creative education space on Waiheke Island, and Nature2Classroom, a creative nature education programme delivered online to schools and homeschoolers in Aotearoa. Her vision is equal access to creative nature education for all children.
Chapter 04 · Where we are
On Waiheke Island
21 Man O’ War Bay RoadWaiheke Island, Auckland
New Zealand
Our long-term vision
It starts with the land and grows into learning
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Conservation
First, protecting what is already here: the bush, the water and the life they hold.
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Looking after the land
Then, caring for this place day by day, so it is in better health for each generation.
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Educating
And from there, educating: children who grow up knowing the land learn to look after it, and each other.
Now, next, future
One step at a time
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NowTerm 1, 2027
A new school begins
We start with seven children, in one class.
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NextSpring 2027
Camps and a therapy environment
Camps with full overnight experiences, and a therapy environment alongside the school.
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Future2029
The village
Talking Tree Hill Regenerative Education and Therapy Centre Village.
Future · 2029
Talking Tree Hill Regenerative Education and Therapy Centre Village
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Image coming soon
Concept images. They show an intention for 2029, not buildings that exist today.
Chapter 05
Register your interest
We are starting with seven students in Term 1, 2027. Tell us about your family and we will be in touch as plans take shape.