Spring Into Action 2016 – Permaculture design in London – LAST PLACES AVAILABLE!

Last weekend 15 new design thinkers were unleashed on the world! End of course presentations of Designs for Active Community Transformation In Our Neighbourhoods from the students of our last London-based PDC have included the redevelopment of a community food growing space in Camden; a dog, person and wildlife friendly small garden in Bethnal Green; a sensory garden for an elderly grandfather; a proposal for turning the anti-social practice of peeing in public places into a pro-social way of generating power and fertility for the borough of Hackney; a forest garden in the south of France; a food growing, skill sharing and time bank project supporting refugees at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park; kinesthetic sculptures as wind generators; a proposal to turn Clissold Park in Stoke Newington into a healing garden based on Ayurvedic medicine and sacred geometry principles and many more!

It's been an amazing experience and a real joy to work with such a positive group of creative people. Our next course begins very soon at Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park, an exciting new partnership exploring some highly creative edges, and is getting near to selling out, so if you want to be a part of generating more solutions based thinking for sustainable and regenerative futures, sign up now to ensure your place!!!

"I feel less like a consumer, more like a designer equipped with tools and skills to create bespoke solutions" - Hagop Matossian, Passive Natural green building consultant.

The Spring into Action! Full Permaculture Design Course will take place in Spring 2016

fortnightly over six weekends:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May

Going further

We are excited to announce that the 2016 Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course will be hosted at furtherfield commons in Finsbury Park. We feel a lot of commonality with the furtherfield vision:

'We believe that through creative and critical engagement with practices in art and technology people are inspired and enabled to become active co-creators of their cultures and societies.'

A vision that sits well alongside our action-orientated approach to permaculture design.

The Spring into Action! Full Permaculture Design Course will take place in Spring 2016

fortnightly over six weekends:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May

Last weekend on our current Design 4 Action! course Marc Garrett introduced us to some of the work constellated with furtherfield - intersections where art, technology and social change meet. We also asked 'Can Britain feed itself?'; thought about, with and like fungi with a session on mycorrhiza; considered edges, hedges and windbreaks; and did some scenario thinking - four-dimensional design with a look towards the future(s).

Book your place on our Spring course here

Winter to Spring

As we approach the shortest day, the darkness tends to draw us inside. With the turn of the year a few weeks away it can also be a reflective time, thinking about what we'll do next in our lives.

In permaculture education, one of the models we use is the 'action-reflection' cycle - this recognises that learning about anything is improved when we do stuff, think about what happened, identify things we could have done differently, design a new approach and then act on it - as we go around the cycle again we improve each time - getting closer to our goals and perhaps changing them!

The next opportunity to engage with our action-orientated approach comes in the longer days ahead with our Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course in east London. Book here

This course will be 6 weekends fortnightly on the following dates:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May

If you want to see what our courses look like, check out these photos from our current Design 4 Action course, we're half-way through already!:

Spring into Action 2016

We're currently getting excited about the Design 4 ACTION permaculture design course (PDC) which starts in 3 weeks time (as of today a couple of places remain so get in quick if you want to start a course this year!)

But we're also planning ahead for our next PDC: Spring into Action 2016 which commences in March 2016.

This course will be 6 weekends fortnightly on the following dates:

12 - 13 March
26 - 27 March
9 - 10 April
23 - 24 April
7 - 8 May
21 - 22 May

Find booking forms for both courses here

Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N.

Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N (Active Community Transformation In Our Neighbourhoods) - A different kind of permaculture course - positive design for your life, your community and your world!

The Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N course is participatory and dynamic, using diverse visual, audio and kinesthetic learning methods such as group work, games, problem solving, discussion, observation, field trips, practical activities, lectures and slideshows during course sessions. 

Participants are encouraged to further their learning through home study during the breaks between modules, which can include further research, personal reflection, and application of what’s being learned in practice. Participants will also work together on applied design projects relevant to their own situation that will consolidate the learning content and empower students to take solutions-based thinking back into their own homes, gardens, lives & communities, providing essential skills for effecting positive change whatever their concerns. 

In addition to 6 core weekends that will cover permaculture fundamentals, design methods and applications to the natural world and built/human environment there will be additional optional days on forest gardening, holistic health, green building, community development and more.

The course will be taught by Graham Burnett (Dip. Perm Des), Claire White (Dip. Perm Des), James Taylor (MSc. Human Ecology) and some great guest teachers. 

The 6 core weekends will take place between September 2015 and February 2016 on these days:

Sep 26/27

Oct 10/11

Nov 7/8

Dec 12/13

Jan 8/10

Feb 13/14

We are pleased to announce that we are holding our course fees for another year:

£380 - Individual, concessionary rate (unwaged)

£580 - Individual, waged (income less than £25k)

£780 - Individual, waged (income more than £25k)

£780 - Sponsored/organisation rate

The booking form for the course is now live and we are accepting participants.

[In Spring 2016 we will again be running the Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course - 6 weekends fortnightly March-May contact James if you would like to know when booking for this course opens)

Permaculture Design Courses: Autumn/Winter 2015/16 and Spring 2016

The Spring into Action! 2015 Permaculture Design Course came to a celebratory close yesterday with three great design presentations from the students.

The Spring into Action! teaching team is dissolving for the Summer, but we will be coming together again:

•  in the Autumn for a new format Permaculture Design Course: Design 4 A.C.T.I.O.N! (1 weekend a month over 6 months - September 2015-February 2016 - with optional add-on Practical Workshops in Green Building, Holistic Health and Forest Gardening)
• and again next year for Spring into ACTION! 2016 (6 weekends fortnightly March-May 2016)

Further details and how to book will be posted here shortly!

[If you can't wait that long, check out Graham Burnett's Summer courses at Spiralseed.]

2015 Permaculture Design Course

The Autumn 'Fall Forward' London Permaculture Design Course is about to begin, but we've already begun planning the 2015 Spring into Action! course based in glorious East London.

Contact Claire White to ensure you're the first to know when booking goes live and for any queries.

Over six weekends between March and May 2015 we will be introducing the application of permaculture tools and solutions, taking in ethics, principles, design methods and techniques. To get a flavour check out these photographs from the course we ran earlier in the year.

In 2014 we were based at Spitalfields City Farm, an agricultural site in the heart of the City of London's financial district and visited Queen's Wood, the Meadow Orchard Project and Mudchute City Farm.

 

   

   

 

Course - Fully Booked

The Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course is now fully booked. If you wish to be added to the waiting list, please contact Claire White clairewhitegardens@gmail.com.

Last Chance to Book - Only 2 places remain!

The Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course begins in a couple of weeks. Only two places remain, so don't delay if you want to join us!

What to Expect on a Permaculture Course?

A Month to Go!

Just a month to go until the start of the Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course. Some places left, so book now if you want to be on it and haven't!

Free Places allocated - New Installment options for payment

The two free places we were able to offer on the 2014 PDC have attracted overwhelming interest and it has been a challenge to allocate them, in the end there were 15 people applying meeting the selection criteria and in the end we had to put the names into a hat and pull two out.

If you applied, we should already have contacted you to let you know if you were successful or not this time around.

We have done as much as we can to make this course as accessible as possible, if you are still interested, and it is a challenge to find the fee all in one go, then we can offer an instalment payment option, which would start this month or in December.

The final payment would have to be before the final weekend of the course- 10^th May 2014.

To do this please fill in the booking form here first.

On the booking form please state if you would like to split the cost by paying:

1) over 7 months starting in November
2) over 6 months  starting in December

If you wish to choose this option, we will send you bank details once you have filled in the booking form.

Free Places [Please note - these have now all been allocated]

UPDATE: 25th November 2013: Please note - these have now all been allocated.

The Spring into Action! Permaculture Design Course is mindful of the inequalities in our society and we will work to alleviate disparities while respecting difference. 

We are reinvesting a surplus raised from a previous Permaculture Design Course in order to be able to offer 2 Free places on the 2014 course.

These places are offered to learners who meet the following criteria:

• Unwaged
• In receipt of benefits
• Otherwise unable to fund a place on the course
• Committed and able to attend all the course dates
• Living in London

In order to apply for one of the 2 Free places on the course, please contact us before filling in the booking form giving a brief account of your situation (no need to go into detail!), how you meet the criteria above and why you wish to attend the course. Email this to clairewhitegardens@gmail.com and we'll get back to you.


Don't met the criteria?

If you do not meet the criteria above, please consider joining the course at the appropriate fee level.
We offer a scale of fees reflecting the income disparities among our attendees and ask all those booking to make an honest assessment when placing themselves on this scale. We have endeavoured to make this course affordable to all. We do not receive any external funding and must balance inputs and outputs, setting fees at a level that cover our costs and provide a fair recompense to our teachers and organisers.

Living like you in our current economic system we could not afford to run a course that was free to all.

London PDC, Spring 2014: The Fibonacci Flyer

Permaculture Design Course - Spring 2014

Join us in spring 2014 for a permaculture design course in North London, based at LAND learner site the Meadow Orchard Project and visiting a number of other local permaculture sites including London’s oldest forest garden and Food from the Sky, the pioneering edible garden on the roof of a supermarket.

Participants attending the entire course qualify for the Permaculture Design Course certificate awarded by the Permaculture Association (Britain).

Six weekends, fortnightly. 1/2 March; 15/16 March; 29/30 March; 12/13 April; 26/27 April; 10/11 May

Fees

£360 - Individual, concessionary rate (unwaged)
£560 - Individual, waged (income less than £25k)
£760 - Individual, waged (income more than £25k)
£760 - Sponsored/organisation rate