The Archimedes Literature
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The literature
Twenty-five years of practice, written down.
The frameworks our courses teach, the books they came out of, and the research they rest on. Named openly, including the shoulders we are standing on.
We did not invent the science of human development. The Archimedes frameworks are a deliberate synthesis: they gather what is already well established and translate it into something a practitioner can actually see happening in a wood on a Tuesday. Naming the foundations openly is both integrity and strength. Claxton did not invent resilience either. He gave teachers a usable shape for it, and that is the work.
The frameworks
Eleven frameworks, and what each one rests on.
Every one of these is taught on our courses, is observable in practice, and has a lineage we will tell you about before you ask.
The Blackwell Growth Cycle
Trade marked
A single developmental sequence, Biology to Brilliance, grown through the woodland. Cyclical rather than linear: under stress or transition a person spirals inward to restore the centre, and that return is intelligent, not a failure.
Rests onMaslow, Bowlby, Porges, Shonkoff, Bandura, Piaget, Vygotsky, Seligman.
The 7 P's of Play
Trade marked
Seven observable qualities of deep play, with Passionate at the centre. Play is not separate from development. Play is how development happens.
Rests onWinnicott, Tina Bruce (free flow play), Bob Hughes (playwork play types).
The 7 R Characteristics Scale
Trade marked
Seven characteristics with observable sub-scales, from emergence to secure, flexible mastery, with Reflection at the hub. Widened from four and grounded ecologically across a whole life rather than a school career.
Rests onClaxton (Building Learning Power), Masten, Ungar, Duckworth, Dweck, Deci and Ryan, Dewey, Schön, Gesell.
The Chocolate Box Schema
Trade marked
A memorable, nature-based set of schemas, so that practitioners can name what a child is repeatedly doing rather than trying to stop it.
Rests onPiaget, Chris Athey, Tina Bruce, Cathy Nutbrown.
The Emotional Wealth Inventory
Six domains
Consciousness, Control, Catalyst, Compassion, Community and Companionship. Emotional capacities framed as wealth to be grown rather than deficits to be corrected, and made observable.
Rests onSalovey and Mayer, Goleman, Lerner (positive youth development).
The Community of Brilliance
Intelligences
Multiple intelligences reframed as a community of intelligences gathered around the child, with Nature and Transcendence given full standing rather than a footnote.
Rests onHoward Gardner.
The Biophilia Lexicon
Trade marked
A working vocabulary for the human relationship with nature, so that practitioners can write down what they saw instead of calling it lovely.
Rests onE. O. Wilson, Kellert, Louv.
The Ecological Integrity Pathway
Trade marked
The sequence by which exposure to a place becomes a lived ecological identity. Children protect what they feel connected to.
Rests onKaplan and Kaplan, Kolb, Schwartz, Leopold, Erikson, Varela.
Web of Life and Congruence
The aim
Congruence as a practical aim rather than a therapeutic ideal, reached through the ten pillars, with Forest Schools as the bridge.
Rests onCarl Rogers, Self Determination Theory.
SARAH REAL Planning
Trade marked
A fuller ethical planning loop, from Session Intentions through to Learning, embedding the other models. Spans all ages, not only the early years.
Rests onDewey, Schön, Kolb, Gibbs, and the observe-assess-plan cycle.
The B.E.I.N.G. Framework
Ages 0 to 3
Belonging, Engagement, Immersion, Nurture, Growth. The under-threes framework, and the one that insists engagement and entertainment are not the same thing.
Rests onBowlby, Stern, Trevarthen, and the attachment and attunement literature.
Two of them in full
The wheels our practitioners work from.
These two are the ones that end up laminated and carried into the woods, so they are worth setting out properly.
The 7 R's of Character
Seven around the edge, one at the hub
- Responsibility — takes ownership of choices, actions and shared expectations.
- Resourcefulness — uses imagination, knowledge and what is to hand to find a way forward.
- Respect — values self, others, living things, places and boundaries.
- Resilience — persists through challenge, adapts, and begins again.
- Risk Management — notices hazards, weighs benefit, makes increasingly safe choices.
- Reasoning — thinks things through, makes sense of cause and effect, reaches sound judgements.
- Relationships — builds trust, communicates, cooperates, develops belonging.
Reflection sits in the centre. It revisits experience, recognises learning and considers what comes next. Without it, none of the seven grow.
The 7 P's of Play
Six around the edge, one at the heart
- Paradoxical — holding opposites. Safe and risky, happy and frustrated.
- Provocative — testing limits and reactions. Builds curiosity and confidence.
- Poignant — processing emotional meaning. Supports integration.
- Positive — supporting internal balance. Not always easy, but regulating.
- Powerful — developing agency. The child feels able to influence.
- Purposeful — constructing meaning, even when we cannot see it.
Passionate sits at the heart. Fully engaged, internally driven play. This is where real development happens. Play is not something we improve. It is something we allow.
The books
Written down, not just taught.
Book
Archimedes Babies: Being Before Becoming
Twenty chapters on the first three years outdoors, and the B.E.I.N.G. framework in full. Careful where the evidence is thin, and says so.
Babies are not projects to be completed.
Workbook, for adults
What Would Change if You Truly Believed You Are Enough?
Thirty days through the Blackwell Growth Cycle, a practice a day. Written for grown-ups, because the framework does not stop working when you turn eighteen.
Because healing needs roots.
Position paper
The Statement of Pedagogical Integrity
The pedagogical spine beneath everything else: what we believe about children, and what follows from it for environment design, pacing, presence and expectation.
Learning begins with being.
Peer reviewed and published
The research record.
Not a long list. An honest one.
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2014
Nawaz & Blackwell
Journal article, with a DOI. Available on request or through your institution.
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Chapter
SAGE, with Linda Pound
A contributed chapter on outdoor and nature-based approaches to early learning.
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Ongoing
Twenty-one papers on Academia.edu
Working papers, framework documents and conference material, published openly.
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In progress
The 7 R Characteristics Scale validation
An observational study: the same children, the same observer, across classroom, playground, Forest Schools and home, each sub-attribute rated from emergence to secure mastery.
A framework that cannot name its sources is a slogan.
Every one of ours can. That is what makes them harder to dismiss in front of a sceptical head teacher, and it is why we teach the lineage alongside the model.Reading further
Ask us for anything on this page.
Papers, framework documents, the observation scales, or a reading list for your staff. We will send them. There is no form and no download gate.
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