Building Something That Lasts
We’ve just wrapped up our February 2026 in-person course here in East Fife.
Four full days of conversation, movement, curiosity and shared thinking.
We received this message from one of our participants, it captures something we could never quite articulate ourselves so I thought we’d lead this:
We weren’t sure how many people would travel up to Scotland - but the course sold out, we had a handful from Scotland, some from England and one from Canada!
It’s always a leap of trust signing up for something like this. Travelling, walking into a room of strangers, bringing your questions, your experience, your uncertainty. So thank you - for showing up with such generosity and openness.
One student said it perfectly: “I haven’t stopped smiling since the course started.”
What stays with us most is the quality of the conversations. The way ideas rub up against each other. The way people listen carefully and then something new starts to form in the space between perspectives.
This was our second Scotland course, and it highlighted just how much the programme has evolved over the last four years when we first started.
We treat it as a living thing. It changes because we change, and because our students shape it. As we pull from anthropology, sociology, public health, ecological approaches to movement, different coaching traditions - we refine, re-balance and occasionally rethink entire sections.
The first Scotland course introduced us to STEP (Space, Task, Equipment, Coaching) and inclusivity frameworks for game design. It was also where we began articulating the Prescriptive–Emergent continuum more clearly - an idea that now sits at the heart of how we think about learning.
This recent group brought an especially deep well of experience.
- Gillian Bartle from the International Physical Literacy Association helped us see a text I’d previously skimmed past with fresh eyes.
- Gaby pointed us toward a lineage of movement theory I’ve wanted to explore more seriously.
- Sam shared management models that clarified something we’d been circling.
- Joanna wove in ideas from art therapy that expanded the frame again.
There’s always a burst of insight after a course. This one felt particularly rich.
It also got us thinking more seriously about what happens after the four days. Not just coaching support - as we already have our coaching pathways - but support for all the other parts of starting something new — building confidence, navigating logistics, finding venues, shaping language, connecting with the right people.
We now have an exceptional network of WildStrong & Nature Moves coaches working in communities all over the country and beyond. There is so much lived experience and practical wisdom in that network.
It feels like the right time to share it more deliberately.
We’ll be putting out a call to former students to help us co-create what this next layer of support might look like.
Our next in-person course is in West Berkshire in May, you can read more about it here.
If you’re interested in learning more about:
Prescriptive and emergent coaching - join us on March 18th for a webinar on How We Learn To Move.
Movement Games for Inclusivity - You can watch the replay of a webinar we ran in September last year.
