FOUNDING CO DIRECTOR

Ilona is a founding Co-Director of Curious by Nature. After having her own children Ilona switched focus from journalism to outdoor education with an interest in Forest School, home education, alternative education and self-directed education. Ilona saw a need for an affordable outdoor learning provision to provide accessible regular sessions in nature for local children and families from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.

Her main areas of expertise are project management and digital communications. Ilona brings over 12 years of experience in communications in the voluntary and community sectors, specialising in outdoor learning, urban nature recovery, managing green spaces and sustainable food growing.

Ilona manages community projects delivering outdoor play and learning to east London children and adults, families and schools. Her tasks range from strategic planning to fundraising and external relations.

She also oversees a team of freelance forest school leaders and manages the daily operations of forest school provision. Ilona is a qualified Forest School Leader herself and is also knowledgeable in permaculture.

FOUNDING CO DIRECTOR

Monica is a founding Co-Director of Curious by Nature, bringing over 10 years’ experience in project support, communications and customer relations across both the public and private sectors. She combines a keen eye for detail with a talent for communicating effectively with diverse stakeholders, alongside a love of spreadsheets and a flair for amateur graphic design.

Monica excels at coordinating and streamlining administrative systems, maintaining accurate records and supporting projects from planning through to delivery. Her experience includes financial management and budgeting, as well as overseeing day-to-day operations to ensure the organisation runs smoothly and transparently.

She leads Curious by Nature’s communications strategy, managing customer service, promoting projects and building strong relationships with community partners and stakeholders — all vital to keeping the organisation rooted firmly in the community interest. Her background in project support highlights her ability to multitask, prioritise and manage information efficiently.

Alongside her professional experience, Monica brings valuable lived experience of supporting neurodivergent individuals, having been a young carer for her sister and the primary carer for her non-verbal autistic son.

She is passionate about the benefits of spending time in nature, in all weather and for everyone, with a particular interest in its positive impact on neurodivergent children and adults.

CO DIRECTOR

Elena is a Forest School Leader, self-directed education facilitator, and a dedicated advocate for the transformative power of the natural world. With over a decade of experience leading nature connection sessions, she has transitioned into a strategic leadership role, focusing on the organisational architecture and specialist support that allows these environments to thrive.

Driven by a lifelong curiosity, Elena is currently broadening her expertise through a Postgraduate program in Neurodevelopmental Conditions and Neurodiversity. This academic pursuit deepens her ability to design inclusive, supportive spaces that cater to the unique neurological needs of every child.

Her practice is a rich tapestry woven from the ethos of Deep Ecology, environmental psychology, and the principles of Compassionate and Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

From Rome to the Forest

Elena’s journey began in the historic streets of Rome. Growing up within a strict routine, she felt a persistent pull toward unbridled play and creative self-expression  elements that were often missing from her own childhood. This personal history, combined with the profound introspection of motherhood, blossomed into a passionate mission: to restore the freedom of self-led exploration to the next generation.

As Co-Director, Elena ensures that the Curious by Nature philosophy is backed by robust support systems. Beyond the structural side of the role, she facilitates the navigation of complex group dynamics and individual needs for our team, providing the reflective support facilitators need to thrive. She extends this same care to our families and carers. By ensuring both our staff and our community feel seen and supported, she creates a ripple effect of care that reaches every child in the woods.

TEAM MEMBER & FACILITATOR

Tasha had quite a forest school like childhood in London being home educated, with a large amount of her primary school years spent in play outdoors. This strong connection to nature led her to read Biology at the University of Oxford, with a specialism in Forestry, Animal behaviour and Marine Biology. After a year travelling Australia, a large proportion of which was spent connecting with Australia’s natural world and the great barrier reef, Tasha took up a Graduate diploma in Education (primary) at Murdoch University – a course that thankfully had a huge focus on the power of reflection. A combination of Ira Shor's book “empowering education” and getting to start her teaching career in small rural towns in Western Australia meant that she could give the children in her multi-year small classes as much choice and autonomy as she wanted.

Tasha entered back into the Home Educating world in London with her first child. Over a decade of deep dive into alternative education led her to become a strong advocate of children’s rights, neurodivergent people, self directed education, consent in education and play play play. She co-founded a democratic, SDE setting in East London, alongside this, taking a course on facilitation of SDE, with the aim to become a facilitator at a SDE setting and leave the world of coercive schooling.

Tasha joined the steering team for Curious By Nature in its early days, taking her previous company experiences, SDE theory, compassionate (horizontal) communication and home ed practice to it’s policies, principles and work on the ground. Forest School and SDE share much of the same values and pedagogy and Tasha thoroughly enjoyed the overlap as she trained to become a forest school leader. Tasha currently bridges the director team with the on the ground team. Her reflective practice, strong sensor for power dynamics, understanding of the role of the facilitator and theoretical aspects of both SDE and Forest School feed back into our team meetings. She also draws from her biological understanding to implement the woodland management aspects of our forest school and has facilitated the building of a trusting relationship with our local council.

Tasha loves being part of a community that treats children with mutual respect and egality and allows families to offer a self directed education to their children. Her dream would be to have this option available to all children.