The Sylva Wood School

Sylva Wood School

Sylva Wood School is bridging the gap between education and practice, and promoting the value of home-grown timber

Sylva Wood School provides an innovative new approach to design and skilled craft in home-grown timber through collaborations with educational institutions, non-profit organisations and commercial partners. 

See the impact of the Wood School

By providing inspiring experiences for students, and innovative opportunities for collaborating partners, the Wood School is highlighting the importance of using home-grown timber and the value of reviving Britain’s wood culture.

Based in the Sylva Wood Centre in South Oxfordshire, the Wood School provides access to a multi-purpose teaching barn and a large workshop with industrial-quality machinery. This allows students, not only to experience working with wood in a stimulating learning environment, but to achieve a professional standard of practice.

Wood School Short Courses:

By providing a programme of accessible short courses covering a wide range of topics and skills, the Wood School is creating inspiring and accessible opportunities to experience working with home-grown timber.

Wood School Courses

Summer School

The Summer School is for those who have an interest in wood as a material, and see forests and woodlands as a place for learning and growing.

Professional Course

The vision for our Professional course is to sensitively combine education and business to create a sheltered workshop experience. Participants will learn in a professionally-equipped workshop by producing commercial projects. Learning will focus on repetition through low volume production rather than working on bespoke projects.

Introductory Courses

The vision for this programme is to introduce participants to a range of furniture making skills and experiences in a professional workshop. Essential health and safety training is delivered in hand tools, power tools and woodworking machinery. Training will be delivered in small groups by demonstration with the opportunity to practice skills through project work.

Short Courses

We provide a growing range of short courses suitable for all ages and skill levels: Maker sessions enable course participants to learn new skills and take away a beautiful object; Woodwork sessions are designed to hone your skills and techniques; Courses for young people have been developed to inspire and create a great experience.

The space and the equipment here – you can’t compare it to anywhere else, it’s just excellent. The fact the course is centred around machining skills, which sets it apart from others. Although you do hand tools work, the machining skills is what people in industry want, and is a bit more realistic. Also Joe is an excellent teacher, just the way he teaches really shows his experience…

Fergus Hooper – Sylva Wood School Fellow 2022

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