David began his educational journey like everyone else... In the womb... Sadly for those around him, this nurtured a love of progressive rock, over elaborate synth solos and wildly fantastical lyrics. Given the lack of a television, he read widely but because of his prog rock tendencies this garnered a passion for fantasy novels and sci-fi which remain a guilty secret to this day.

He attended the University of Wales in the early 90s, which he chose for its wild countryside and proximity to the sea. He studied English Literature for four years which culminated in a thesis about 1984 and the language of the media and which now feels oddly prophetic.

Afterwards he completed his post graduate teacher training he taught in London for 12 years in a couple of mainstream schools. And whilst these were not unpleasant experiences, they did influence greatly his philosophy of learning and teaching... that the assessment led teaching model was rarely of benefit to the child, whether they managed to jump through the hoops or not.

“When I think about it, it was only really when you went off-script did you get an insight into the real child. You could see the fires ignite once they sensed that you were guiding them towards some secret learning treasure. Likewise, when we took them on Duke of Edinburgh hikes, or went mountain-biking did you get a sense of their mettle. That was inspiring.”

He went on to train as a trails guide in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, and complete a degree in Earth and Planetary Science at Birkbeck, University of London.

“Every day I have one of those heady moments where you feel yourself being carried through the cosmos on the back of a rock that is travelling at unimaginable speed and its awesome, and everyone should feel like this. But how can you feel this way if you are stuck behind a desk during the most curious, the most active and most energised part of your life? Our children deserve better.”

And now he is in Italy, with his wonderful family, running this amazing natural learning project and living his best life. The only fly in the ointment... the complaints of children when he plays early Genesis.

From a professional point of view Giorgia started off as a sanskritist, with a degree at the University of Bologna, and ended up as a horticulturist. In between, she also took a diploma in Creative Writing and Storytelling at Scuola Holden in Turin, graduated as a Naturopath, studied Yoga and Yoga Teaching at different schools, worked at a press office for a publishing house - then, as the result of a long foreseen evolution, she decided to follow that inner voice which was getting really loud: she abandoned the city and the office and started doing what really made her happy as a child. She took a professional gardening diploma and moved to Tuscany, to her wildest heart, to take care of the garden both external and internal.

Since 2016, Giorgia works with plants and children, the two most wonderful things in the world.
She is a gardener specialized in edibles and medicinal plants and practices  synergistic and biodynamic agriculture. She has designed, realized (alone or in team) and taken care of more than 10 edible gardens across Italy and organised courses, workshops and flora walks, both with adults and with children. She has worked with different parental and natural learning projects, always bringing her authentic contribution.

Since 2023 she is grateful to be part of Shades of Green/Sfumature di Verde, where she can integrate her love for communication and divulgation of subjects she feels seminal, with the joy of cultivating children. This is giving her a great chance to grow through wonder, the main point in life.

Born and raised in a quaint northern Italian suburb with her grandmother and the local women, Francesca quickly discovered her talents and passions. She has always loved helping those in need, gathering herbs in the fields, and concocting magical potions. As she grew, her curiosity about distant places and diverse cultures led her to explore literature and the sacred arts, which, combined with her fascination for numbers and numerology, sparked a love for travel.

Right after completing her scientific studies, Francesca set off on journeys that drew her closer to volunteering. Her first experiences in peacekeeping in West Africa and Palestine opened her eyes to disability and deepened her empathy for what she recognised as the uniqueness of “diversity.” This inspired her to pursue studies in the humanities, focusing on education. She spent her early years in Lombardy working on a communication development project with autistic and non-verbal youth, specialising in Augmentative and Alternative Communication with Dr. Costantino, dedicating the next five years to this field.

Francesca's travels continued, along with her training in various areas, including Peacekeeping, humanitarian interventions in challenging contexts, refugee support, and education for migrant minors. Most recently, Francesca worked with youth in a juvenile detention centre—an experience that completely transformed her understanding of “education,” “intervention,” and “projects.” As a self-taught nomad, Francesca became intrigued by concepts like homeschooling, unschooling, forest schools, and natural learning.

From as early as she can remember Kirian has always been drawn to some form of art-making. Whether it was shamelessly dipping her fingers into her father’s paint cans and mimicking him as he painted his murals or assembling haphazard  mosaics on her childhood home’s floor with scrap tiles salvaged from her neighbor’s rubbish, she has always been driven by a desire to explore the material world around her and experiment with constructing her response to it. 

Kirian was born in Maastricht, the Netherlands to two visual artist and musician parents whom, fleeing the notorious dutch weather, relocated to the Space Coast of Florida. 

While at the University of Florida her studies focused on Art Education, Art History, Painting, and Multi-disciplinary Sculpture.  

“I will never forget my first year of fine art college. I had attended your typical  ‘middle American’ public highschool where I was enrolled in what was labeled ‘gifted art class’. We drew realistic still-life drawings of fruit and band instruments, learned the pointillist technique, gave our best attempts at copying the Renaissance masters. All valid lessons in their own right. But when I began my first courses at university, I felt as if I hadn’t known anything about what art (or the world for that matter!) was really about until that moment. Like a veil obscuring what human expression and art could be had been lifted. The power it could hold finally revealed.”

Kirian’s mission today as an educator is to inspire in her students that same sense of awe that she felt at 18,  now in their early formative years. She seeks to provoke in them the thrill of realizing the infinite forms that Art can take and its potentiality as a mechanism for better understanding ourselves and each other; where we come from and where we’re going.

In addition to teaching at Sfumature di Verde, Kirian works with Il Quadrifoglio facilitating creative projects in conjunction with local agriculture and forestry sectors aimed at nurturing the inclusion of specially abled adults. She is also a certified sommelier and wine educator with a special focus on sustainable winemaking.

Bio Pending

Bio Pending

Nanar's background is in Arts and Education. She is specialised in Voice, Communication and Teaching. She has extensive experience as a Teacher of Drama, Media and English Language and Literature, then as a Home Educator and Course Creator having worked with SOAS, AGBU and the Gulbenkian Foundation. She loves a cup of chai, a good podcast and hearing great ideas.