Meet the team
Forest School Learning Initiative team members bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to every course.
Christina Dee
Chris is the Managing Director of FSLI. She trained as a Forest School Leader in 2000 during her time at Evesham Further Education College. Chris' experience is wide-ranging, having run Forest School Sessions with children aged 2 years to 18 years and with children who have learning difficulties.
Chris is one of FSLI's lead tutors and has extensive experience working in and developing urban Forest Schools - especially in London where she has worked to develop Forest Schools in some of the city's most deprived boroughs.
Chris is absolutely passionate about Forest school because of the amazing impact she sees it have on children and young people, as well as adults with learning disabilities. Chris developed the Forest School Leader training in China, Australia and Malaysia where we train regularly.
Chris has spoken at Child Care Conferences all over the world
Chris has two sons and enjoys riding, horse racing and walking.
Robbie Dee
Robbie is a First Class Honours Graduate in Sports Coaching and Physical Education. Rob completed his Forest School Level 3 training in 2016 and leads a number of Forest School sessions. He is a growing asset to the company, leading on more parts of the training and assisting on Forest School conferences. Robbie has assisted on multiple Australian Training Courses and is very excited to expand FSLI to new markets and audiences.Robbie leads all our Website management and Social Media.
Robbie loves participating in many sporting activities in his spare time.
Michelle Hughes
Michelle is one of FSLI's Secretary's who is based in our office in Gloucestershire, England. She is a bubbly character, always smiling, and will most commonly be the person at the end of the phone when you ring the office.
Outside of FSLI, Michelle loves spending time with her son and keeping up with his hobbies. She also loves reading, cooking, and biking (when the weathers nice!).
Ali Stubbs
Ali is one of a lead tutors for our Buckinghamshire and London based courses. Ali trained as a Forest School Leader in 2011 and started working for FSLI a couple of years later.
Her background is in Early Years. She managed a day nursery for a number of years before completing an Early Years Degree. She then moved into forest school, working with children aged 1 years old - 16 years.
In her spare time Ali enjoys running, paddle boarding, travelling, and watching her children play rugby.
Umbareen Daniels
Umbareen is one of our newest members starting in January 202, providing sessions to children aged Reception to Year 6 based in local inner-city schools on their own site. Umbareen in also one of our lead Tutors in the delivery of Forest School Training for students.
Umbareen trained with FSLI in 2009, back when she was a reception teacher and took her own class to the woodland for forest school sessions. She was a Primary School Teach for 30 years previously, majority of the time spent in a large South London Primary School. She then worked with the Ernest Cook Trust Charity for 5 years taking children from a variety of backgrounds to beautiful woodlands.
She is passionate about learning in the outdoors and learning through fun to make sure it is meaningful and lasting.
When Umbareen is not outdoors, she loves to cook, to garden (growing things to eat!) and take her black labrador, Monty, out for walks.
Nicky Nicholson
Nicky has only been with FSLI for a short while but she is a huge part in helping everything to run smoothly along with Michelle in the office. Nicky is our photocopying queen, having everything is check ready for the Trainings!
Her backgroung is working in the pharmaceutical sector, mostly at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, making specialist medicines for very poorly babies and children.
Nicky loves to find new and exciting walks around the cotswolds that she can take her dog and 6 year old son on. Nicky loves to play the piano, garden, and always has a lovely smile on her face!
Alison McGilligan
Alison is based in Malaysia and supports FSLI's training out there. We have delivered forest school leader training in Malaysia since 2019 and hope to be back there in the near future.
Alison has a passion for working with children in the outdoors and runs her own Kindergarten that embeds the ethos and adventures of forest school everyday!
Kind words...
I cannot recommend FSLI training high enough. Having just attended the Australian Level 3 course, I can confirm that the course, content and trainers are exceptional. Every day was relevant, practical, supportive and engaging from start to finish. I cannot think of any skill or aspect that was missed. Even after 20yrs in environmental education I walked away with so much new knowledge and skill, and best of all - empowered to deliver a Forest School program that is safe, meaningful, sustainable and exciting. Worth every cent and second!
Katie Jacobson (via Facebook)