About Avara
Avara is a teacher-led outdoor learning space set within the peaceful Dunton Community Garden, near Biggleswade in Bedfordshire.
It offers a calm and thoughtful approach to early learning for children from birth to 7, where time outdoors, meaningful experiences and strong foundations are carefully brought together.
Inspired by Scandinavian approaches to early education, Avara provides an unhurried alternative to more structured environments. Younger children attend alongside a parent, while older children move gently towards independence within a small, consistent group.
Avara was created to provide a developmentally appropriate, joyful and gently guided beginning to children’s earliest years of learning.
The name Avara is inspired by the Finnish approach to education, often recognised for its trust in childhood, and belief that time, space and wellbeing matter deeply in the earliest years.
In Finnish, avara suggests something spacious, open and expansive, both in environment and in mindset.
Here, academic foundations are carefully guided within a setting that feels calm, generous in time, and rooted in the natural world.
For home-educating families
Each session is thoughtfully prepared and guided by two qualified teachers, with clear learning intentions woven throughout. For home-educated children, early literacy and maths are taught gently, including phonics, early writing and number, then applied through meaningful, hands-on experiences in the garden.
It is designed for families seeking a thoughtful and academically grounded approach, where early literacy and maths are applied within real experiences, rather than delivered through isolated tasks.
Over the course of a block, each child creates a personal project book, capturing their ideas, observations that felt special, and learning they are proud of. This is shared with families during a calm and celebratory final session in the garden.
Places are intentionally limited, allowing each child to feel a strong sense of belonging within a calm and consistent group.
The Avara Approach
Sessions are intentionally small, creating a quiet and carefully held environment where each child is known well.
Rooted in Finnish approaches to early education, children spend meaningful time outdoors in all seasons, with a strong emphasis on wellbeing, independence and learning through real experience.
Children return to the same spaces each week, becoming familiar with the garden and noticing subtle changes over time. They are given time to settle, to revisit experiences, and to develop their ideas at their own pace.
A thoughtful environment for learning
The vegetable patch forms a central part of the experience, offering opportunities to plant, observe and care for the garden over time. Through this, children explore measurement, counting, recording and seasonal change, while developing a growing sense of responsibility.
A consistent rhythm supports children to feel secure, while gently nurturing independence and meaningful friendships within the group.
This is a considered and spacious approach to early learning, where depth is valued over pace and children are given time to settle into their learning.
A Note From Me
Hello, I’m Felicity.
I am a qualified primary teacher with over seventeen years’ experience in education, across both England and Spain, with a specialism in Early Years
Avara reflects a strong belief that young children learn best when they are active, outdoors and deeply engaged in purposeful play, with learning drawn from real experiences, such as measuring what we grow or recording what we harvest.
Time spent at the allotment and on RSPB walks with my two daughters continues to inform the calm, nature-led character of Avara.
I hold up-to-date safeguarding and paediatric first aid training, and am currently undertaking further study in Hygge in the Early Years.
Felicity
The earliest years deserve time, attention and thoughtful care.
Avara is intentionally small so that each child is known well, supported with sensitivity, and given space to grow in confidence.
If this feels aligned with the kind of educational beginning you hope for your child, I would love to hear from you.
Get in touch
Places are limited to ten children per day, with two qualified teachers, and are secured per half term blocks.
If you would like to explore whether Avara might be the right fit for your child, you are invited to get in touch with any questions you might have.