our team
think outside was founded in 2017.
Creative Director
Beata Allen
Beata arrived in the UK over 20 years ago. She has a degree in Civil Engineering. After graduating, she worked as an Engineer and Project Manager for Surrey County Council and the Environment Agency. She has 4 children (8 to 22).
She is now leading Outdoor Learning development projects in local primary schools. Her background is in Natural Sciences and mathematics but she is also very passionate about promoting ‘soft subjects’, including gardening, art and other curriculum subjects using nature and outdoor spaces.
She believes that there is not enough understanding about the importance of personal and social development when being exposed to the outdoors - allowing children and adults to be closer to nature can alleviate many urban stress problems.
Nutrition is a very important part of Beata's life and she is convinced that we can grow healthy adults by starting to teach about correct food choices in early childhood - children respond amazingly well to tasting home/school grown food!
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Beata has Paediatric First Aid and relevant Food Safety qualifications. She is also a Forest School leader.
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Activities Co-ordinator
Lilka Allen
Lilka spent 2022 home-schooling - an opportunity to run classes for think outside with all primary school age groups. Lilka is passionate about art and crafts, performing arts and volunteers every week at a local farm to learning more about the outdoor life!
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Administration
Keith Allen
With a background in finance and media, Keith completed a 4 year term in 2017 as a governor at the local primary school. For the last of those years he was Chair of the Governing Board. He has always taken a keen interest in developments in education and politics more widely. Keith is responsible for think outside’s administration and accounting and works on special projects such as its fund-raising initiatives and the 2018 outdoor learning conference.
Social Media and
Communications
Weronika Stelmach
A chemist by background (focusing on organic chemistry), Weronika spent a year in Germany and speaks 3 languages. She spends a lot of time in the kitchen concocting vegan food and enjoys swimming and wind-surfing if there is any wind! She is particularly interested in mycology and wants to help think outside with its eco communication - sharing its inspiring message with as wide an audience as possible.
think outside
works with
