Wild Minds
Alternative Provision
Specialist provision for children and young people with complex needs — where relationships come first and progress follows.
Safety
Connection
Change
Schools and local authorities
Commission or refer a placement
Rolling starts. Three specialist sites across the South East.
Parents and families
Understand Wild Minds Alternative Provision
What we offer, how it works, and how to get in touch.
AP providers and organisations
Adopt The WILD Framework™ and Portal
Bring greater consistency, evidence and clarity to your provision.
Individual practitioners
Train and develop through The WILD Academy
Become a qualified WILD Practitioner.
What we do
Helping Wild Minds Thrive
Who We Are
Wild Minds Alternative Provision operates across three specialist sites in the South East of England, working with local authorities and schools across multiple counties.
Placements can sit alongside education, as part of an alternative provision package, or within an EOTAS arrangement.
Through The WILD Framework™ we are building a growing network of partner provision sites across England.
Rolling starts available throughout the year.
Our Approach
At Wild Minds, we understand that behaviour is communication and that meaningful progress depends first on safety and connection.
We provide calm, consistent environments where young people feel safe, known and supported — building confidence, routine and readiness for learning and development.
Relationships come first. Progress follows.
Our Model Includes
- Relational practice and therapeutic support
- Accredited learning and vocational pathways
- Functional Skills and preparation for adulthood
- Personal development and life skills
- Clear structure, predictable routines and safe environments
Day to Day Life
Life at Wild Minds
Hands-on learning, animal care, practical skills, and a community built on connection.
Our Specialist Sites
Our Sites
We deliver across multiple environments to meet different needs and stages of readiness.
The Farm Campus
A practical, outdoor setting focused on animal care, land-based skills, construction and vocational learning. A highly regulating environment where learners build responsibility, confidence and engagement through hands-on activity.
Acorn House
A calm, indoor therapeutic hub supporting personal development, functional skills, small group work and structured learning in a low-arousal environment.
Cookham Lodge
A classroom-based setting supporting re-engagement with education, functional skills, and preparation for next steps, including college and employment pathways.
Learners may move between sites as their confidence and readiness develops.
Growing our reach
Partner provision sites across England
Beyond our own sites, we are actively supporting a growing network of partner provision sites across England. Through The WILD Framework™, practitioners and providers can embed our evidence-informed, relational approach within their own settings.
Each partner site works within the same structured framework, ensuring consistency of practice, shared outcomes language and the quality of experience that young people and commissioners can expect.
Expanding nationally
Partner sites across England adopting The WILD Framework™
Shared standards
Consistent practice, language and outcomes across all sites
Practitioner-led
Developed by practitioners, for practitioners
Measurable outcomes
Framework-aligned progression and accreditation pathways
Curriculum
Programmes and Pathways
We offer personalised pathways built around preparation for adulthood.
All learners also access:
Personal development
Literacy and numeracy
Employability skills
WILD Framework™ — personalised outcomes and progress evidence
Structure
Placements and Structure
Placements are tiered based on readiness and attendance tolerance.
Tier 1
1 Day
per week
Tier 2
2 Days
per week
Tier 3
3 Days
per week
Our standard day runs from 09:40 to 14:30, term time.
Each day includes a balance of practical sessions, theory, personal development, and literacy and numeracy, with built-in time for regulation and reset.
Who We Support
Wild Minds supports young people aged 11–25 with:
- SEND and EHCPs
- SEMH needs
- Anxiety and school avoidance
- Trauma and adverse experiences
- Placement breakdown
- Reduced timetables or EOTAS
We also offer community-based mentoring for young people who are not yet ready to attend a site-based provision.
Community and Connection
Family is at the heart of everything we do. That includes the family who run the farm, our staff team, our learners, our animals, and the wider community around us.
Connection runs through everything. When young people feel they belong, they begin to engage, and from there, they begin to grow.
Why Wild Minds?
- Calm, structured environments
- High staff ratios and consistent teams
- Multi-site flexibility
- Therapeutic, trauma-informed approach
- Strong focus on preparation for adulthood
- Rolling starts with no need to wait for September
We focus on
what is possible.
Our Therapeutic Approach
Animal-Assisted Therapy
Animals are at the heart of what we do. Working alongside our ponies, horses, sheep, goats, ferrets, owl, and other rescue animals gives learners a reason to engage, a way to regulate, and a relationship that asks nothing of them except presence.
Animal-assisted therapy supports emotional regulation, confidence-building, responsibility, and connection. For many of our learners, the animals are the reason they walk through the gate each morning.
Sessions are structured and therapeutic, led by trained practitioners who understand trauma, neurodivergence, and the power of non-verbal connection.
Areas of impact
Beyond the Classroom
Community Mentoring
Not every young person is ready for a site-based placement. For some, the first step is building trust, confidence, and routine in a familiar environment.
Our community mentoring service brings consistent, therapeutic support to the young person — whether that is at home, in a local café, a park, or another community setting. Sessions are led by trained practitioners and focus on regulation, engagement, and building the foundations for next steps.
Community mentoring can be delivered as a standalone service or as an add-on to any alternative provision placement, supporting learners during evenings, weekends, or school holidays.
Regulation and Routine
Building predictable, safe interactions that support emotional regulation and daily structure.
Confidence and Connection
Developing trust through consistent relationships and meaningful activities in the community.
Transition Support
Bridging the gap between home and provision, preparing learners for site-based sessions or college.
Community mentoring is available for young people aged 10 and above and can be commissioned by local authorities, schools, or accessed privately by families.
Enquire About MentoringReady to refer?
Rolling starts available
throughout the year
Placements commissioned by local authorities, schools and educational settings.
Developed from
frontline practice
The WILD Framework™
The WILD Framework™ is a practice methodology created by Wild Minds from years of delivering alternative provision. It provides a structured, consistent way for practitioners to understand each young person, plan appropriate support, recognise progress wherever it occurs, and account clearly for the work they do.
It is practical rather than academic. Its test is what changes in practice — not what can be recited.
The WILD acronym
The physical, emotional and psychological safety of the young person. Wellbeing is not a starting point — it is an ongoing condition that shapes everything else.
The quality of relationships between the young person and the practitioners, peers and environment around them. Interaction is where change happens.
The development of knowledge, skills and understanding — wherever it occurs, and in whatever form it takes. Learning is recognised and evidenced on its own terms.
The broader growth of confidence, resilience, independence and readiness for next steps. Development is the longer arc of which learning is a part.
Underlying philosophy
Safety
Connection
Change
A young person cannot learn when they do not feel safe. They cannot develop when they are not genuinely connected. The Framework is built around this sequence — not as a theory but as an observed reality.
Practitioner approach
Understand
Support
Engage
Develop
The Framework gives practitioners a clear sequence for their work — without reducing complex, relational practice to a checklist.
What the Framework enables
Understand
the whole young person — their strengths, needs, history and context
Identify
barriers to engagement and learning, and what will help
Plan
appropriate, personalised support with clear aims and review points
Recognise
learning and development wherever it occurs — not only in academic form
Evidence
meaningful progress in a way that makes sense to families and commissioners
Reflect and adapt
practice based on what is and is not working for each young person
Five interconnected pathways
Digital infrastructure
for WILD practice
The WILD Portal
The WILD Portal is the digital environment built around The WILD Framework™. It brings practice records, planning, evidence, student welfare, staff management and professional development together in one place.
Our practitioners may be highly skilled, nurturing and relational without necessarily being confident users of complicated technology. The Portal has been designed to support them — not to create additional administrative burden.
It is not a generic management information system. It has been built around the way WILD practice actually works.
The WILD Framework™ tells us how we work.
The WILD Portal helps us put it into practice, record it and evidence it.
Everything in one place
Practice records
Session notes, observations and evidence captured in one place — linked to the Framework.
Planning and reviews
Individual support plans with clear aims, review points and progress notes.
Student welfare
Welfare checks, safeguarding records, attendance and incidents in a single secure environment.
Animal care records
Daily animal checks, health records and care logs integrated with the practice environment.
Staff management
Rota, supervision records, team communication and performance — all connected.
Professional development
WILD Academy training, CPD records and practitioner pathways accessible from within the Portal.
Professional
development
The WILD Academy
The WILD Academy is the professional development strand of The WILD Framework™. It develops practitioners who understand the methodology, can apply it consistently, and can account for their practice.
The WILD Framework™ is not simply a collection of documents or software features. It is a professional practice methodology. That means it needs to be learned, applied and quality assured — not simply read about.
The WILD Academy exists to ensure that wherever The WILD Framework™ is used, it is used well.
Additional professional designations
Practitioner pathway
WILD Foundation Practitioner
Understanding The WILD Framework™ and its application to everyday practice.
WILD Applied Practitioner
Developing consistent, confident and evidence-based WILD practice with young people.
WILD Advanced Practitioner
Leading and modelling WILD practice within a team or provision setting.
WILD Lead Practitioner
Shaping practice, quality-assuring delivery and developing others within the WILD methodology.
The WILD Academy is currently in development. If you are interested in the practitioner pathway or in bringing The WILD Academy to your organisation, get in touch.
Register your interestFor AP providers and organisations
Adopt The WILD Framework™
The WILD Framework™ and The WILD Portal have been developed through Wild Minds' own frontline practice. We are now working with a small number of partner provision sites to embed the same approach within their own settings.
You do not need to build this from scratch. We have done that through years of delivering alternative provision ourselves. You adopt the Framework, use the Portal, and benefit from the WILD Practitioner development pathway.
Partner organisations work within the same structured Framework, using the same practice language and the same tools — so that young people receive a consistent quality of experience wherever WILD practice is delivered.
What partner organisations access
The WILD Framework™
Full methodology — including the WILD acronym, Safety → Connection → Change philosophy, practitioner approach and five pathways.
The WILD Portal
Access to the digital infrastructure: practice records, planning, evidence, welfare and CPD in one environment.
The WILD Academy
Practitioner development pathway from Foundation to Lead Practitioner, plus specialist designations.
Shared practice language
A consistent framework for understanding young people, planning support and evidencing progress.
Quality assurance
Practice that can be understood, reviewed and quality-assured against a clear shared standard.
Join Our Team
Careers at Wild Minds
We are always looking for talented, compassionate professionals who want to make a genuine difference to the lives of children and young people. Opportunities regularly arise across our education, therapeutic, operational and specialist teams.
Stay Connected
Follow Us
Keep up with life at Wild Minds — animal updates, learner achievements, and behind-the-scenes moments.
Wild Mind Well-Being
on Facebook
Follow us for daily updates, animal stories, learner achievements, and a window into life at Wild Minds.
#HelpingWildMindsThrive
Get in touch
Let's talk
If you are a parent, school or professional looking for a supportive, structured alternative provision, we are happy to talk through suitability and next steps.
Send a message
We will get back to you as soon as possible.