The Harbour, Self-Directed Learning Centre

The Harbour is a self-directed learning centre located in a beautiful and quiet park in Oxford. It is designed to provide young people with the time, the space and the support each of them need to explore their own interests, passions and various possible paths in life. At The Harbour, we foster a supportive learning community guided by our team of trained facilitators. Our structured daily and termly routines offer plenty of opportunities for community building, self-reflection, and developing self-regulated learning skills. This will enable young learners to take charge of and self-navigate their own learning journey! The Harbour was founded by Dr. Carmel Kent, an educational academic and teachers’ training professional, based on Self Managed Learning (SML), a research-based approach developed in the late-1970’s by Dr. Ian Cunningham, and successfuly practiced in the SML college in Brighton. Using principles of consent-based learning, unschooling and agile learning, we aim to equip young people with the empowering realisation that learning is fun, diverse, dynamic and safe, and most importantly - managed by them!