SEAL BROOK WOODLAND SCHOOL
About Us
Seal Brook Woodland School was established in 2023 by Matt Lloyd after
purchasing Seal Brook Wood in late 2022. Matt purchased the woodland with
his wife, Alice, after moving to Derbyshire following 12 years living and working
in Bristol. During that time Alice ran a successful dog walking and boarding
company, Sit Stay Walk Play, which she has re-established in the area, and Matt
ran Survival School Bristol, a branch of Survival School Ltd, whilst also helping
run the family property development company.
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The purchase of Seal Brook Wood was in part an accident as it came up on Right Move whilst searching for a smallholding! After visiting the woods though the potential became obvious and they fell in love with the location, and luckily found a house nearby after agreeing the purchase. Matt and Alice live in Netherseal with their 3 cocker spaniels, Luna, Elda and Diggory.
The vision for the woodland is for it to be a healthy and well maintained woodland environment whilst also being a multi-functional site that serves the needs of both Alice, and the dog walking, and Matt with the survival, wilderness living and rural crafts courses. With the potential for residential stays for schools and youth groups linked with outdoor education. They will also use the site as a smallholding to grow produce and maintain a number of poultry birds and a small number of other livestock to help manage the woodland and supply for their own needs. For more details on the woodland please visit the 'Our Woodland' page.
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All of our public courses are run from Seal Brook Wood where we are fully set up to provide for the needs of any group with good access into the heart of the woods, car parking, composting loos and a number of covered teaching areas to allow us to run regardless of the weather. All courses are primarily organised and run by Matt alongside a dedicated team of highly qualified and experienced instructors where required, all our instructors are First Aid Trained to 16 hour Outdoor First Aid level, have been DBS (formerly Criminal Records Bureau) checked, are Food Safety and Hygiene Certified to Level 2 and hold the Survival School NCFE Level 4 Bushcraft, Survival and Wilderness Living Skills Instructors and Mentors Award. For more information on the instructors you may meet please visit the 'Instructors' page.
We believe that the best way to learn is through hands on experience and experimentation, every course we run is designed to be informative, developmental and above all fun!
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