Welcome to Flickernet
A summary of current activities:
Supporting underprivileged young people
Assisting schools in the South West of England
Outdoor learning and remote sensing facilities (Space To Learn), in Northern Ireland
Core principles:
We have a Christian ethos, seeking to meet the needs of those who face disadvantage by providing access to technology and the natural world: in combination
Pupil-led investigations and project-based learning ensure creative control for those who may not have experienced an open-ended learning approach before
Immersive experiences to help those who suffer from anxiety or who are in need of other mental health support, to benefit from the calming sensations of the woodland
Engagement with the natural environment from afar, with added agency due to the remote connectivity systems.
Therapeutics and mental health care, including for the neurodivergent: opportunities for technology and the woodland environment to be combined into new and effective therapy methods
Pupils of all ages are shown real projects that have been designed to help others, or the environment: this provides inspiration for their own projects (a link with more classroom info is here)
Teachers and home educators are encouraged to join their pupils in developing innovative methods of interacting remotely with the enivronment
Training for teachers, along with the physical space to explore new technologies, including support for their own innovative approaches to learning
Multiple live feeds from within an ancient woodland in the Mountains of Mourne, Northern Ireland provide real-time access to STEM experiments
Real data, drawn from sensors that are spread throughout an area of special scientific interest (ASSI) inspire learners to develop their own projects which, in turn, can be physically located within the same woodland for them to monitor.
In 2025 our focus on the wellbeing of young people is the main Flickernet offering.
- designed to encourage engagement with learning
- starts with the individual needs of the young person.
- for anybody who finds themselves disengaged, overcome with anxiety or otherwise prevented from doing their best in school.
Our combination of therapeutic woodland experience and cutting edge STEM experimentation, provides young people and their teachers with a new outlook.
We aim is to deliver this for free by partnering with organisations who seek to support the growing mental health challenges that are encountered by young people today.
Three themes:
• An ancient woodland in Northern Ireland equipped with multiple cameras, sensors, data gathering tools and remote input / output devices.
• Cross-curricular resources that draw on the environment, habitats, biodiversity and natural setting to create a wide range of study and experimentation units.
• Focusing on disadvantaged children for whom education presents a particular challenge: a series of resources that capture the imaginations of reluctant learners, drawing them into the study with hands-on project based learning and live camera feeds on which they can view their own experiments live too.
• An Impact Case Study / pilot study and knowledge exchange which will see touchscreens and biometric sensing used to assess pupil wellbeing metrics and current mental health markers before and after interventions.
• A large inflatable cube will be brought into schools equipped with projectors that provide an immersive experience of the woodland.
Please explore the Blog Archive which, it is hoped, can be helpful in charting the journey that Flickernet has taken.
