
“It was a great deal of information for 14 days only but a
balance between quality and quantity was definitely achieved.”
“Very well explained and enjoyable.”
“A great experience. Mind opening.
I feel I can now design a permaculture plan and I know where to start,
to start my own permaculture sustainable community.”
“It was a joy and an honour to spend the two beautiful weeks
with you.”
“Amazing. Inspirational! I think you have changed my
life. Thank you very much.”
“A large amount of info in a very short space of time! But the quality was high especially in
technical details.”
A really marked feature of the courses was the very wide
diversity of people in terms of origin, background and previous knowledge. The nationality list is immense; Portuguese,
Brazilian, Australian, Filipino, Russian, English, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish,
Chinese, Hungarian, American, Italian, Belgian, Isreali, Spanish and Scottish. Luckily they all spoke and understood English,
although there was a fair amount of multi-lingual translation going on around
the class to clarify terminology and some
ideas.
We use different methods of teaching as different subjects
are better suited to different teaching styles and we are also in the process
of developing the majority of the theory sessions into digital presentations
which gives us much more scope for including photos, diagrams and time for
group discussion etc. We are still using the white board for some of the
sessions and we will always use it at times as it gives an extra freedom to
explain points further, give detailed diagrams and create group mindmaps. We believe that practical sessions are the
most clear and effective way to learn this subject and it is best if students
can come away with hands on experience of this practical skill which is
Permaculture design. We include various
practical sessions throughout the course, it is a fine balance as there is a
huge volume of material to cover in the syllabus but we are working towards
teaching as much of the course as possible in practical ways. This will develop with time. Even still, in these last courses, there were
a lot of practical activities and a lot was achieved for the venue including:
- · Swales surveyed and dug
- · Net and pan system dug around fruit trees
- · Herb spiral built
- · Two worm compost bath tubs set up
- · A series of both sheet mulch and synergistic raised beds built
- · A rocket stove made
- · With the experienced help of Nuno Mamede, the adobe brick circular base of a pizza oven was built
Also, every morning, we had a short energiser
session which included many different activities and games to wake everyone up,
get moving, focus and ready ourselves for a day of learning. Activities included:
·
Yoga/warm-up stretches
·
Different games, to illustrate ideas
and to build group cohesion and trust
·
Circus skills
·
Observation/Site walks
·
Meditation/Inward focussing
The final practical exercise in
which all the elements of the course come together, is the creation and
presentation of group designs. In the
case of the courses we have just done, the participants were split into three groups
and each group, in one and a half days of design time, successfully achieved
some excellent designs, expressing each students knowledge and experience
gained from the course. We were really
impressed by the high quality of the final designs created in such a short time
and found it encouraging that they had all learnt so much. It gives us confidence in our teaching
methods and general approach to the subject. Below is a small selection of their finished work.

You wonderful wonderful wonderfuls.
ReplyDeletelovely post. Great to spend time with you on these courses. Good Permaculture work :)
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