Forest Schooling UK nominated for Social Investment Deal of the Year
We are incredibly proud to share that Forest Schooling UK CIC has been nominated for Social Investment Deal of the Year at the UK Social Enterprise Awards 2026, recognising our work alongside CAF Venturesome.
For us, this nomination is about much more than a financial investment. It recognises what can happen when people are prepared to invest in a different idea of education and in the young people who need that difference most.
From an idea to a genuine school community
Forest Schooling UK began with a relatively simple belief: young people who struggle within traditional education do not need lower expectations, they need an environment in which they can succeed.
What began as small-scale outdoor intervention has developed into a growing Alternative Provision and, most recently, Berrylands School, our independent special school for young people aged 7–16. Berrylands combines education and outdoor experiences within a highly personalised environment designed around the needs of its young people.
Social investment has played an important part in making that growth possible.
It has enabled us to invest in our organisation, develop our provision and turn an ambitious idea into something sustainable, without losing the values that made Forest Schooling UK different in the first place.
Investment with a purpose
As a Community Interest Company, growth has never been an end in itself.
Our purpose is to create places where young people can feel safe, build trusted relationships, regulate, reconnect with learning and begin to see themselves as successful again.
That means doing education differently when conventional approaches have not worked. It means being relational, trauma-informed and personalised. It means understanding behaviour rather than simply trying to manage it. And it means remaining ambitious for young people who may previously have experienced exclusion, instability or long periods of disengagement from education.
Recognition of a shared belief
The nomination for Social Investment Deal of the Year therefore feels particularly significant. It recognises not only Forest Schooling UK, but the partnership behind the investment. CAF Venturesome backed what we were trying to build and, importantly, the social purpose behind it.
That backing has helped us move from small beginnings towards a much bigger ambition: developing an organisation capable of providing exceptional, sustainable education for more young people while keeping relationships, belonging and individual need at its heart.
We are hugely grateful to CAF Venturesome, to everyone who has supported Forest Schooling UK on that journey, and particularly to our staff, families and young people.
