At Schumacher the growing, gathering, preparation and eating of food are all essential parts of the Schumacher experience, integral to all our courses. Many people who want to expand their horizons are doing so in addition to busy lives and jobs. With that in mind, we have specially crafted a series of courses designed to encourage you to take leave from your daily lives and make the most of what Schumacher has to offer. Focussing on the love of sustainable food from seed to supper, these courses explore nature’s ability to nourish and maintain our bodies and minds – and bring communities together.
Each of the courses below is at a reduced rate of £495 to make it as accessible to you as possible. We hope you can join us. And failing that, perhaps you would recommend these sessions to family and friends? We have no doubt that each course will be a fulfilling experience for Schumacher participants past and future.
Gaia’s Garden: Practical skills for sustainable local food, July 2010
Dyane Osborne, Martin Crawford, Rhamis Kent, Nick Gooderham
Awaking Our Relationship with Food, September 2010 Edward Espe Brown, Carolyn Steel
Wild Plants as Food and Medicine, October 2010 Erin Smith, Simon Mills
|
Students studying the Dartington Certificate in Sustainable Horticulture course experienced overwhelming success recently when they received their first external exam results.
Of the sixteen students who sat their Level 2 National Certificate for the Dartington Certificate in Sustainable Horticulture, twelve students received distinctions, two students were awarded merits and two students received a pass, giving a hundred per cent pass rate.
Jon Rae, Head of Vocations and Enterprise at Schumacher College said: This has been an exciting first year for the Certificate, which has brought together a number of unique approaches to horticulture from across Dartington. These students are pioneers in the area of sustainable food production and we are delighted that they leave with such excellent results.
Ecological Facilitation: A gritty and creative approach to leadership
Jenny Mackewn and Toni Spencer
October 17 – 23, 2010
Ecoliteracy: First principles for radical change
Fritjof Capra (by videolink), Gustavo Esteva (by videolink), Terry Irwin (by videolink), Stephan Harding, Philip Franses, Satish Kumar, Oliver Greenfield, Toni Spencer, Anne Miller
October 25 – November 5, 2010 (one and two-week options)
Systems Thinking in a Complex World
Hardin Tibbs, Philip Franses, Jean Boulton, Gunter Pauli
January 4 – 21, 2011 (one, two, three-week options)
Rhamis Kent, an African American permaculture designer & trainer/teacher will be coming to talk to the group on Gaia’s Garden (A Schumacher College short course in July) about his work in Detroit, where urban agriculture projects, involving the urban poor and people of colour in growing their own food, are transforming the post-industrial landscape of the city. What is taking place in Detroit is “ground zero” in the transformation of post-industrial urban America. The course will also provide the opportunity to learn a range of garden-related skills with practitioners at the cutting edge of sustainable and community-based food production activities – several of which are on the doorstep of Schumacher College. This course looks at the skills, structure and motivation for community based food production.
Watch a U-Tube clip about Urban Roots in Detroit, click here
Click here for Gaia’s Garden: Practical skills for sustainable local food, July 2010 Dyane Osborne, Martin Crawford, Rhamis Kent, Nick Gooderham
|
Accredited training to become a renewable energy installer in the UK.
Schumacher College is delighted to be partnering with PPL training in delivering courses specifically developed for people wanting to learn essential practical skills in renewable energy systems. These courses are accredited by the awarding bodies BPEC and NICEIC, both of which are nationally (UK) recognised in the industry and by the MCS scheme.
Demand for renewable energy installer skills now, and in the future will be high. Figures from the UK government expect the number of new people required in the UK green energy sector to rise to 100,000 over the next 5 years. The challenges of global warming and the increasing use of green energy into the future will provide you with a secure and meaningful employment outlook. PPL have trained many hundreds of people in renewable energy technologies and were one of the first in the country to offer solar and rainwater courses from BPEC.
For more details about renewable energy course dates this year click here.
IN OUR NEXT COMMUNICATION Look out for our survey on our new Masters programme in Economics Help us co-design the right course for future economists.
|
In partnership with Cornwall’s Duchy College, Dartington through Schumacher College runs a nine month certificate course in Sustainable Horticulture. The course is a collaboration between Dartington’s Gardens Department, School Farm and Schumacher. The emphasis is very hands on, with students spending much of their time working on the Dartington land.
The course’s Living Classroom Educator, Bethan Stagg, leads many of the courses activities and brings to her work a deep conviction. “… I have deep and abiding passion for the earth, and how we can live on what it produces. Since I was a kid I have been fascinated by plants and their role in food production”
The Sustainable Horticulture course is part of Dartington’s plan to make more and more use of the estate as a living classroom. “Schumacher is pretty brave and adventurous in the way it explores new ways of looking at sustainability and horticulture…they are much less conventional than many other organisations involved in food production. This is a good place for experimentation and there are plans to expand this whole area of work over the next 5 years.” said Bethan.
Prior to coming to Schumacher, Bethan worked on the Allotment Regeneration Initiative and also works at Plymouth University Open Air Laboratory. The attraction of Schumacher is, in part, its long history in the area of sustainability and the potential of the whole estate. “The work that is going on across the estate is informative and inspirational for students…the organic farming at School Farm, the agroforestry developments…there are not many places that have this scale of working estate to study.”
This article is an extract from the Dartington magazine, Scene.
|
Martin Crawford runs the Agroforestry Research Trust on the Dartington Estate. The forest garden runs directly alongside the Schumacher College land and has provide much inspiration and practical support to Schumacher staff and students over the years. Published last month, Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops is a beautiful and intelligent guide to the potential of growing in this way.
“Martin Crawford has spent 15 years creating what is almost certainly the best forest garden in the temperate world. He’s also a remarkable researcher of information on plants and their ecology, and the breadth of his knowledge matches the depth of his experience. I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since I heard he was writing it and now I have it in my hands it exceeds my high expectations.” Patrick Whitefield, author, Permaculture in a Nutshell
To read extracts and a leaflet about the book from the publishers, Green Books, click here
Our relationship to the land is a fundamental part of what it means to be a community of place. But in many parts of the world, people’s ability to relate directly to their place has been broken by colonialism, landlordism, or other forms of domination. Alastair McIntosh has gained his experience of land reform from the Isle of Eigg, which contributed to Scotland’s Land Reform Act, resulting in 2% of the land now coming under community ownership. As part of our course Whose Land is it Anyway? Empowerment and community of place participants and teachers, including Alastair will explore why our relationship with the land is also about our relationship within ourselves and in community with one another, and how this is fundamentally a spiritual question.
|
Each year in July the literary festival, Ways With Words, comes to Dartington. If you would like to stay at Schumacher College during the festival please contact our administrator Heather to book This way you can enjoy this international event and the experience of being at Schumacher all at the same time. The cost is £42 (including VAT) per night on a bed and breakfast basis, per person.
This year you have the chance to hear talks from people we’ve not yet featured in the Schumacher College programme including Oliver James and Karen Armstrong as well as people who have taught here in the past including James Roose Evans, Alice Oswald, and Richard Long. There is also a session with Ian McEwan, several food and gardening sessions, and Ronald Blythe and Madeleine Bunting on relationships with land.
For details of Ways With Words at Dartington click here.
For Heather Gillard and booking to stay at Schumacher College (Telephone: 01803 865934)
|
We hope that you all received the newsletter last month where we spoke about the relocation and development of Schumacher College next year. However, if you missed this announcement please click here to read it now. We will continue to keep in touch.
Gaia’s Garden: Practical skills for sustainable local food NEW COURSE
Dyane Osborne, Martin Crawford, Rhamis Kent, Nick Gooderham
July 18 – 22, 2010
Awakening our Relationship with Food
Edward Espe Brown, Carolyn Steel
September 13 – 17, 2010
Wild Nature, Human Nature: Deep sustainability through Ecotherapy
Mary-Jayne Rust, Dave Key
September 18 – 24, 2010
Creativity and Social Innovation NEW COURSE
Kate Davies, Jonathan Robinson
20 – 24 September, 2010
Whose Land is it Anyway? Empowerment and community of place
Alastair McIntosh, Iain MacKinnon, Sulemana Abudulai
27 September – 1 October, 2010
To Buy or Not to Buy? Consumption, Growth and Prosperity
Tim Jackson, Ed Mayo, Julie Richardson
October 4 – 8, 2010
Wild Plants as Food and Medicine
Erin Smith, Simon Mills
11 – 15 October 2010
Ecological Facilitation: A gritty and creative approach to leadership BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
Jenny Mackewn, Toni Spencer
October 17 – 23, 2010
Ecoliteracy: First principles for radical change BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
October 25 – November 5, 2010 (one and two-week options)
Fritjof Capra (by videolink), Gustavo Esteva (by videolink), Terry Irwin (by videolink), Stephan Harding, Philip Franses, Satish Kumar, Oliver Greenfield, Toni Spencer, Anne Miller
October 25 – November 5, 2010
Leadership, Education and the Closed Loop Economy
Ellen MacArthur, Ken Webster, Ramon Arratia
November 8 – 12, 2010
Systems Thinking in a Complex World NEW COURSE
Hardin Tibbs, Philip Franses, Jean Boulton, Gunter Pauli
January 4 – 21, 2011 (one, two, three-week options)
Ecopsychology: Exploring the Roots to Change
Mary-Jayne Rust and Dave Key
March 7th – 25th, 2011 (one, two, three-week options)
MSc in Holistic Science
Masters in Economics
Look out for announcements about a Masters programme in Ecological Facilitation, coming soon.
Rupert Sheldrake: Mind and Cosmos June 30
Rhamis Kent: Permaculture and Society -The example of Detroit July 20
The Telegraph Ways With Words Festival at Dartington Hall, 9 – 19 July 2010
Contact us if you would like to stay at Schumacher College during the festival
Bioneers for Europe at Findhorn: Revolution from the Heart of Nature Saturday 30th October, 2010
Difficulty finding what you need from this website or newsletter: Let us know
Schumacher College
(E) admin@schumachercollege.org.uk
(T) +44(0)1803 865 934
www.schumachercollege.org.uk
For connection and discussion with other Schumacher College friends, join our social networking site schumachercollege.ning.com
Schumacher College is a part of The Dartington Hall Trust, a registered charity, bringing ideas on sustainability to life.
