Da Vinci Life-Skills Newsletter 7/23

Company name change to from
Da Vinci Life-Skills to
Biophilic Education Alliance (BE All).

We have had an incredible few months since our last newsletter and we are really excited to share our progress and update you all with some exciting news!

Empathy Middle School in Bali finished their first action packed school year delivering our Da Vinci Life-Skills curriculum and assessment framework. We have had wonderful feedback from students, parents and teachers and celebrated our first graduation.

After a successful two-week pilot in January, Chatmore British International school, Bermuda are preparing to deliver our curriculum over the next academic year for their high school students.

In Cambridge, UK we are excited to announce that we have opened admissions for our first BE Learning Hub starting in September 2023 for students aged 10+.

"I am learning things I will need for life in a fun and engaging way." (DVLS Student)


BE Learning Hub, Cambridge UK

Our first Biophilic Education (BE) Learning Hub site is at Arrington Village Hall, SG8 0AH, 20 mins south of Cambridge.
This is a temporary site until we grow a big enough cohort to find a site closer to the centre of Cambridge.
If you are interested in a place for your child, email rosina@davincilifeskills.com or click here to fill out our student application form.

Versatile Classroom

We have a well stocked open planned classroom for an initial cohort of 12 students. Downstairs we have a locker room and 3 toilets.

Large Hall

We have use of the large village hall and the municipal kitchens beneath the classroom.

Outside learning

Our Hub backs onto the Wimpole Hall country estate with acres of grassland and woodland, we also have access to a nearby playground/park.

Arrington Village Hall

The site has ample parking and is set back off the main road for safe drop offs and pick ups.

BE All Webinar

Do you want to build your own small school or home ed learning hub?


Working in partnership with Progressive Education, BE All are holding a webinar to gather parents, educators and community builders that need support setting up their own learning communities. We are providing comprehensive teaching resources from our Da Vinci Life-Skills curriculum and year long BE Mentor training to support the delivery of our learning content.

To keep the cost as low as possible, we are giving educators the chance to be trained as a group so that the fee can be shared between several schools and learning community start-ups.

We are looking for 10 participants from start-up (or newly established) schools and learning communities to form a cohort for our Biophilic Education Mentor training, to commence in September 2023. Please join this online information session with BE All co-founder Rosina Dorelli on July 24th if you would like to find out more.

Collaborations, Partnerships & Awards

Rosina accepting the Ivan Baines Award from Rupert Baines and Lord Simon Woolley at Homerton College.

CAMBRIDGE, UK 
In Autumn 2022 we were overjoyed to win the Ivan Baines Award for the "Company most likely to change the world". Our Co-Founder, Rosina Dorelli was honoured to accept the award which was presented at Homerton College, Cambridge University, by Rupert Baines and Lord Simon Woolley.

"Of all the awards that we could have won, this is the most heartfelt, Ivan took his own life at 21 and we are fighting for all young people to have a voice, to feel a sense of belonging and to recognise that they are a valuable part of our community. It is such an honour to accept this and to forge forward in his memory and in memory of all the other young people that were not able to cope with the pressures in their lives." (Rosina Dorelli)

Zach spreading the collaborative spirit at our monthly Skill Share between local schools and NGOs, and our monthly farmers market run by the middle school students.

BALI, INDONESIA
At Empathy School, Bali our Co-Founder Zach Reznichek has been leading our Da Vinci Life-Skills first pilot since January 2022. As Director of the middle school Zach has been training teachers and expanding and improving our program. We have a fast growing group of international learners, Indonesian teachers and happy parents.

We have been developing regular Skill-Share events that connect schools with local charities and NGOs and enables teachers to share their skills.

Over the past year, our middle school students have initiated and run a popular monthly farmers market to connect local farmers and artisans with the community.

 "I'm really excited by what is going on at this school, gosh I wish I went to a school like this, I'm jealous, you should start an adults class. We are seeing a positive change in [son]'s attitude...there is more engagement and excitement about school... he’s starting to connect more.” (DVLS Parent)

After presenting at the COBIS Annual Conference, London March 2023, Rosina and Angela made collaborative future plans with our Founding Patron, Anton Zastavnyi and Olha Zastavnyi, from the British International School, Ukraine, 

LONDON, UK
We are continually building our network of alliances because we strongly believe in a future of collaboration over competition. We all need to work together to help improve our education system and promote a healthy and sustainable future for all.

We are excited to share that Angela Fubler, founder of Chatmore British International School will be joining us as the Head of BE Mentor Development (Biophilic Education teacher training and CPD). This spring we presented the concepts of Biophilic Education together at both the World Education Summit and COBIS Annual Conference (Council of British International Schools). Check out the News & Media page on our website for more information on our presentations.

“Their curriculum [DVLS] is exactly what we wanted…I’m really excited by what they are doing, it links very nicely into our current curriculum, we are using IPC/IMPC and IGCSE, but this life-skills piece…we are finding our students saying… this is how I want to learn.” (Angela Fubler)

Future Partnerships


In addition to our growing international school collaborations, we are currently developing an alliance with a large UK state academy chain to deliver our Da Vinci Life-Skills (DVLS) curriculum to a cohort of year 7s and 8s. Our entrepreneurial and inclusive vision particularly supports vulnerable and struggling students in their challenging transition from primary to secondary education.

We can help them build confidence and increase their engagement in learning through our fun, transdisciplinary projects that blend all the traditional school subjects and more in applied real-world contexts.

We are also putting together a PhD research project at Cambridge University to study the impacts of this program.

BE All is a social venture that seeks to provide systemic solutions to achieve a sustainable social objective. This social purpose is being hard coded into our company and a percentage of our profits will go towards our BE Foundation.

Contact us if you are interested in forming an alliance, licensing our curriculum, training as a BE Mentor or joining our mission.

For more information contact rosina@davincilifeskills.com
Website www.davincilifeskills.com