Alaria CIC

08/09/2026

🌿 Parent & Under 8s tomorrow morning

We’ve got our weekly Parent & Under 8 session at Alaria tomorrow from 10.45am–12pm.

Come and spend a relaxed morning outdoors – visit the guinea pigs and chickens, make giant bubbles, swing in the hammocks, get messy in the mud kitchen, mix up some potions and enjoy plenty of time for free play and exploring 🌱

£10 for one parent/carer and one child
£5 for each additional child
Babes in arms are free

If you fancy joining us, you can book here:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/ticketing/parent-and-under-8-session-2

📍 Alaria CIC, beside Glengavel Reservoir
🕥 Wednesday, 10.45am–12pm

Feel free to share with anyone who might enjoy a wee midweek adventure 💚

A relaxed, welcoming space to connect, play and spend time together outdoors. Children can explore freely at their own pace, with activities such as mud…

08/09/2026

Feeling quite accomplished on this rainy, blustery forest school day… our first attempt at candle-making went surprisingly smoothly! We melted our soy wax on the fire in our fire hut and poured it into our decorated holders 🔥💪🔥

05/09/2026

The band played while the chicken-shark hunted.

Not a sentence we ever imagined we’d find ourselves saying… but here we are. 😂

One of the things we love most at Alaria is watching children take an idea and run with it – sometimes quite literally.

The children request to be chased by the chicken-shark. Chicken-shark (me) happily obliges, although the reservoir was a little chilly today 😮. A musical ensemble with loud and enthusiastic drumming arrives to cheer on the hunt.

There’s something rather lovely about being in a space where play doesn’t need to be tidy, sensible or even particularly explainable - it can simply unfold.

Stay tuned for future adventures of the Glengavel Reservoir chicken-shark 🐔🦈

30/08/2026

If Strathaven Balloon Festival has left your household feeling a little… peopled out 😅🎈

You’re probably not alone.

Big community weekends can be brilliant – but they can also be a lot. Noise, crowds, excitement, disrupted routines, late nights, busy brains and bodies trying to take it all in.

And sometimes, by Sunday evening, what everyone needs most is a little less.

Less rushing.
Less expectation.
Less noise.

A bit more space to potter, create, climb, dig, make things, sit by the fire, spend time with animals, wander off to investigate something interesting, or simply be alongside other people without having to perform.

That’s one of the things we love most about our Therapeutic Forest School groups at Alaria.

There’s room for children to arrive exactly as they are.

Full of beans. Quiet. Tired. Chatty. Unsure. Mud-seeking. Craft-obsessed. Animal-loving. Needing company. Needing space.

All of it is welcome. 🌿

26/08/2026

I wonder what you see when you look at this doll?

My first thought was a very practical one.

I’m responsible for setting limits for the children – and, let’s be honest, I’m also the one who’ll be tidying everything up afterwards. 😁

So a little voice in my head said:

“Hmm… perhaps I need to put a limit in here. The dolls aren’t for putting into potions or mud.”

And then the therapist in me said:

“Hang fire, Heather. There might be something important going on here.”

So I looked again.

I saw three girls laughing and giggling together.

I saw a princess doll with wild hair, a muddy face, a beautiful dress splashed with magical potion and the residue of slime-making.

And I found myself wondering what this might mean for them.

Perhaps, in some tiny way, it was a rejection of perfection.

Perhaps it was an expansion of what it means to be a girl.

Perhaps beauty didn’t have to mean pristine.

Perhaps a princess could be muddy, messy, loud, creative, chaotic and completely immersed in what she was doing.

Perhaps she didn’t need to be carefully preserved at all.

And I realised that if I’d stepped in too quickly, I might have interrupted something much more important than keeping a doll clean.

Sometimes, as adults, we see the mess before we see the meaning.

Sometimes we need to look again.

And that made me smile.

A deep-into-my-soul kind of smile. 💜

25/08/2026

We had a wonderfully lively Tuesday morning forest school group today. In one of a number of impromptu creative events, the children decided to draw Logan and humbly offer him their artistic interpretations of his aesthetic. We couldn't help but notice the uncanny resemblance 😂

23/08/2026

“Wait, you have guinea pigs here?!” That was our favourite quote from the start of term forest school groups this past week.

Because the young man who spoke the words had been coming to our groups for perhaps around a year 😁 and his attention had clearly been so absorbed elsewhere that he hadn’t noticed a stable of 6 piggies 😂.

This past week has been such a privilege to be part of. Our staff here have received the kinds of hugs from returning children that will probably stay with us forever - the squealing, running and jumping into our arms kind. And we’ve had the joy of supporting some new children, perhaps feeling very unsure, as they begin to develop their sense of belonging here at Alaria. ❤️

15/08/2026

For some children, those first few days back at school can feel like a lot.

New routines. Busy classrooms. Noise. Expectations. Social demands. Having to hold so much together for so many hours of the day.

And sometimes, what a child needs alongside school isn’t more pressure to learn – but a different kind of space in which learning can happen. 🌿

Our Therapeutic Forest School groups begin again this coming week, and all are currently full except our Tuesday group, starting 18th August.

This group may be a lovely fit for children who could benefit from a wee bit of breathing space in their school week, as well as children who are flexi-schooled or home educated.

The learning here can look rather different.

It might be learning how to make a connection with another child, in your own time and in your own way.

It might be caring for our animals and discovering what they need from us.

It might be beginning to understand sustainability and our relationship with the natural world.

It might be the enormous quiet pride of discovering that you can light a fire.

Or losing yourself in painting, gluing, crafting, natural clay, felting or woodworking – making something simply because an idea appeared in your head and you wanted to see where it went.

There is so much learning that doesn’t happen sitting behind a desk. 💚

For some children, having one part of their week where they can move, create, explore, take manageable risks, build relationships and feel competent can make an enormous difference.

If you think the Tuesday 18th August Therapeutic Forest School group might offer something your child needs just now, please message us here or email [email protected], and know that you don't have to commit your child to attending the full term - if they come along but don't feel it suits them then we cancel the weekly payment plan right away.

We can also send you our Schools Information Pack, which parents can share with their child’s school where needed. It explains the wider educational, developmental and wellbeing experiences children can gain through attending Alaria – because sometimes education looks like pencils and jotters…and sometimes it looks like muddy boots, a piece of wood, a fire striker and a growing sense of “I can do this.” 🌱

https://goteamup.com/providers/offerings/courses/136427/

04/08/2026

A letter to a young person on exam results day

If you are a young person carrying disappointment, sadness, guilt, regret or even shame after receiving your exam results, this letter is for you.

What a strange society we have created, where a young person’s worth can seem to be reduced to grades, qualifications and what they may one day contribute economically. Where you are asked to sit for hours, learning subjects that may hold little interest for you, make little sense to you or feel entirely disconnected from the life you hope to live.

Please do not let a set of grades define you.

Your results may tell you something about how you performed in particular exams, on particular days, within a particular system. They cannot measure your kindness, your courage, your creativity, your humour, your sensitivity, your determination or your capacity to grow. They cannot tell us who you are – and they certainly cannot tell us who you might become.

Allow yourself to feel what you are feeling, difficult though that may be. You do not need to rush to make it better, dismiss your disappointment or pretend that it does not matter. Turn gently towards what is hurting. There is strength in discovering that you can face difficult feelings without being defeated by them.

And, when you are ready, begin again.

Offer kindness when you can. Be generous when you can. Let go of judgement when you can. Lift others up when you can. Notice what makes you feel alive, what matters deeply to you and what kind of person you want to be.

You have worth simply because you are a fellow human being in this world. You try, you struggle, you make mistakes, you feel, you dream and you begin again – just like the rest of us.

The path you walk must ultimately be your own. A life designed entirely by somebody else may never feel like yours. There may be diversions, unexpected turns and doors that do not open – but there will also be paths you cannot yet see.

One day, may you look back with a full heart – not because everything went according to plan, but because you learned to choose your own way with courage, kindness and integrity.

You are good enough.

You were never not good enough.

And today’s results do not change that.

03/08/2026

So sorry we’ve been a little quiet on here… we’ve been super-busy having a smashing time meeting new children and families at our holiday sessions and feel so privileged to be able to do the work that we do. We’ve seen new bonds created, anxiety tentatively turn to fun and then pure joy, and our sense of community next to the reservoir growing in beautiful ways 🌷.

We sign off our summer sessions with this photo that sums up something of how we roll at Alaria. If you want to be a one-eared sans-horn unicorn then we’re here for that, and we’ll even help you look for your missing ear 😂.

We’re going to have a wee rest now as we gear up for the next term of regular outdoor groups which kick off in a couple of weeks.