About us
Seeking Wild aims to reconnect children with their wilder selves by facilitating a space for them to explore, play, and learn in nature.
After receiving a forest school qualification, Reece began running an after-school nature club at a primary school. It was there he decided he wanted to reach a wider audience of children. Reece founded Seeking Wild with the support of his friends, colleagues, and parents of his students. He hosted his first session in the spring of 2019, selling out a two-week camp!
Reece accidentally stumbled upon a private woodland that, after speaking with the owner, he kindly agreed for him to continue running the program. From then on, Reece started Seeking Wild full-time with Lydia. They have hosted weekly, after-school, and home-ed groups.
Meet the team
Reece Allen
Reece grew up in Surrey playing football and climbing trees. Growing up, he found a passion for teaching kids football, leading him to work as a teaching assistant and Forest School Leader in a primary school. He discovered a passion for teaching students in the outdoors, which led him to start his own school, Seeking Wild.
Reece expanded his bushcraft knowledge at multiple Wild Human courses starting in 2017. Over the years, he attended various movement, tracking, and naturalist courses. This led him to learn about Wilderness Awareness School in Washington, USA, where he traveled to participate in the nine-month Immersion course in 2021. He then spent the next year apprenticing for the Immersion program, working summer camps, and participating in the Wildlife Tracking Intensive with WAS. Currently, he is deepening his bushcraft and naturalist skills as an apprentice on the Immersion Year 2 course.
Reece is passionate about bushcraft, natural movement, tracking, hide tanning, nature connection, and mentorship. His favorite animal is a squirrel (all squirrels, to be specific).
Lydia Crook
My love for working with children started a long time ago! I was an Au Pair for a year in France when I was 18. I then went on to study Sociology and Politics at university, and whilst at university I enrolled on a yoga teacher training course to follow my passion for holistic wellbeing. As well as teaching in studios I ran student yoga classes, taught refugee and asylum seekers, and was involved in various holiday programmes offering yoga to children. In the last few years I have moved away from yoga slightly as I became increasingly aware that I love teaching children but felt that I wanted to offer more. I started to research different learning theories and found the forest school ethos which I felt very inline with. I have gone on to undertake my forest school leader training and have worked at Little Forest Folks Nursery, and with Seeking Wild during camps before now running Seeking Wild full time with Reece. What I love most is exposing children to new experiences and watching them explore in a child-led environment.