Mosaic School · Bang Phra, Thailand
The school woven into the farm.
Mosaic Learning Centre is a fully operational, Ministry of Education approved school for children from age three upward, built on the Daruma campus in Bang Phra, Chonburi. Permaculture course participants study on the same ground, alongside Mosaic's own students.
Designed as permaculture from day one
Built on permaculture principles.
Long before Mosaic opened its doors, this ground had already been designed as a permaculture site. Walk the campus today and the same design thinking is visible in the buildings themselves: classrooms and walkways woven between mature trees, bamboo grown and worked on site, natural and recycled materials throughout.
Neil considers the educational side his biggest contribution to permaculture. Mosaic is where that shows most clearly, a school built inside a working demonstration of the thing it teaches.
As far as Neil knows, Mosaic remains the only school in the world with a curriculum designed around permaculture ethics and principles, and one of very few Agile-model schools recognised by Thailand's Ministry of Education.
How Mosaic teaches
Not classes. A journey.
Mosaic doesn't sort children into grades or subjects like history and maths. Students are grouped by age, ability and interest instead, and follow the Thai national curriculum through the Mosaic Learning Journey, a themed inquiry that runs for one to two months at a time.
- 01Discovery
- 02Exploration
- 03Investigation
- 04Mapping
Studying at Mosaic
You'll learn on their playground.
Permaculture courses at Daruma are taught on the Mosaic campus itself, not next door to it. Course participants share the grounds with Mosaic's own students during the day, whether that's over lunch, in the gardens, or at a school event like the one pictured here.
It's a small, deliberate part of the experience: you see a permaculture-designed education in daily use instead of only hearing about it in class.
Explore courses
Looking into Mosaic for your own children?
Visit the school's own site.
This page introduces Mosaic in the context of a permaculture course. For admissions, term dates and the full school programme, Mosaic keeps its own website and Facebook page up to date. Here for a permaculture course instead? See the nine-day PDC or the two-day introduction, both taught on this campus.