the Science of thinkingWhere outdoor adventure meets the latest research into how children build powerful thinking habits.
Each day at The Park is framed around a series of adventures
Beneath the play is serious design, based on the science of how we learn to think
Mornings are spent in The Socratic Playground - an evidence-based programme to build critical thinking skills and oracy
Asking questions, being curious,
speaking up
After lunch it’s a high-energy hour where maths becomes a secret code for the real world
Learning to spot what others miss
Each day ends with Pick & Mix hour - oracy, sport, music, art, cookery, drama
Building mastery in a skill that brings them joy
The Park takes its name from Plato’s Academy Park
founded two thousand years ago in ancient Greece.
For shorthand you could call it a school — but it was nothing like the schools we know today.
It wasn’t a classroom of stone walls but a park filled with olive trees where young minds could move, play and learn under the open sky.
And no, they weren’t just sitting around stroking their beards and thinking deep thoughts. Plato’s model mixed physical exercise, mathematics and critical thinking — training body and brain together.
Plato founded the Academy Park to pass on what he’d learned from Socrates, the father of critical thinking.
Plato taught Aristotle at The Academy Park, who went on to teach Alexander the Great — not a bad alumni list.
