Artemis

Artemis Bear (they/them) was a school refuser as a child and planned their first children’s revolution at age 7. As a grown up they have been a part of the Bristol home education community since 2012 and in 2016 founded The Garden, the UK’s longest running self-directed learning community. Artemis has been involved with Freedom to Learn since 2019, and took on the role of co-ordinator for the network when it was a programme of Phoenix Education Trust in 2021. They remain an active co-creator within Freedom to Learn, as it emerges into its new collaborative form.

Heidi

Heidi Steel is a former teacher and long term home educator. She lives with her husband and four always unschooled children in West Sussex and is the founder of the LivePlayLearn unschooling community. Being part of the Freedom to Learn Network and connecting with others living without school, grappling with what emerges whilst holding each other with care and compassion, brings her hope for both now and the future.

May Ling

An unschooling parent with coaching, facilitating and organising leanings, I joined the network in 2022 and my first forum was in 2023. Through F2L I’ve met a diverse group of people all united in our shared respect of young people and our desire for radical system change.

When F2L separated from Phoenix Education Trust I was keen to help it transition out of the charity system, but to be honest I wasn’t keen on the idea of organising the forum! I’m grateful I stayed as organising has deepened and broadened my deschooling and decolonising process in a really beautiful way that I could not have imagined, whilst generating living proof that what we dream is actually possible.

Rachel

I live in Hertfordshire with my partner and two almost adult children. I home educated my son for many years. Now that he’s at college, I work for one day a week at a self-directed education setting and do lots of voluntary work in the areas of building community and caring for the environment. I also endeavour to keep my allotment reasonably free of weeds and do lots of singing and brass-banding. I got involved with Freedom to Learn in Spring 2025. I stay because I like organising things, and I like experiencing different ways of working with people.

Ratna

I’m a London-born Indian with roots in East Africa, on this wild, deschooling journey with my partner and our kids. I came to know the lovely people here through having been part of a self directed education setting and attending the past two forums. I stay because I’ve come to see that the process is part of the learning, from the planning meetings, to difficult conversations,  to heartfelt connection and time for reflection. F2L feels to me both comforting and stretching, like a warm hug and an invitation to grow. I’m excited to see how all the relationships we carry here, with ourselves, each other, our communities, and the rest of nature will continue to deepen and flow.