History of The Hive

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Back in February 2020, I set off with my daughter on a big learning journey - selling my house and planning on going away for a year or two to write a book about what I had discovered about education and maybe put my daughter into a worldschool somewhere.    

When we arrived in the Dominican Republic, COVID was starting to spread and so we got stuck in the lockdown (although since it is such a lovely place to be ‘stuck’, we decided to not try and race away).   

 We started with 11 children who all lived within a stone's throw away from where I lived and were also stuck in the pandemic - all these families had children and were saying “what are we going to do all day?”   

So, we decided to make a COVID bubble between our families. We set up a pop-up classroom in a yoga shala with our little bubble. 

That is how we started.   

Then people started saying - “shall we do another 6 weeks?”  I had training materials that already existed from our online training to help educators go out into the world to support refugees through my work with The Human Hive.  So, we trained some volunteers to join us, and then it evolved. Just like a patchwork. We started with 11 children in our small yoga shala, then trained some volunteers, added some more children, and then we got a building.  

The children bring in their own skills, their own knowledge, and their own passions. They leave something behind. Then they go and they take what they have learned into their next context. 

The Hive may have started from a small idea but it has grown (much like a hive!) into something special.   

We are so grateful for this community & this shared learning journey that we are all on together!    

What was to become The Hive started in a yoga shala in Catalina at the beginning of the pandemic, to meet the needs of local community and children who were missing school  

Self-directed learning began with 11 children in a COVID bubble

Kate found a building which needed a lot of TLC - but dreamt of what it could become

By the end of 2020 The Hive was ready to welcome it's first wave of learners

In January 2021, despite a world in lockdown, The Hive opened it's doors to it's first cohort of students from the local and global community.

In our first year we:

Welcomed 7 local children on full scholarships  

Trained 4 local staff as educators and 3 local staff on internships of which

100% of the local (previously unemployed) educators progressed into employment or further education/training post internships at The Hive.

  $86,599 entered into the local economy 

51 worldschooling families into Cabrera, increasing diversity in income into the community

What will we achieve in 2022? Get involved and join us on our journey!