Because the best classrooms don't always have walls

We'd spent years in tipis long before we thought about building a business around one. Weddings, festivals, gatherings in fields and woodland. The same thing happened every time: timber poles reaching upward, canvas breathing with the wind, light filtering through in a way that makes everything inside feel quieter, calmer, more present. People behave differently in a round room. You notice it immediately.

Then we found out we were expecting. Like most parents-to-be we started reading, and what we kept coming back to was screen time — how much of it children now do, and what the research says it costs them in attention, sleep and play. We're outdoor people. We wanted our own child growing up outside, and we wanted to build something that made that easier for other people's children too.

And the two thoughts met. The space we'd been sitting in for years — warm, enclosed, full of natural light, impossible to ignore — was exactly what education was missing.

Then we went looking for a nursery place. We joined a waiting list at three months pregnant and waited eighteen months. The more settings we spoke to, the more the same picture appeared: nurseries at capacity with no affordable way to grow, primary and independent schools under pressure to offer richer outdoor learning, specialist settings with nowhere calm to take a child who needs it. Everyone wanted children outside more. Nobody had a practical way to do it.

So we looked at what was available, and found a gap that surprised us. There were companies selling outdoor structures. There were companies hiring out tipis for events. But nobody was offering what seemed so obviously needed: a genuinely managed service where the setting gets a beautiful, maintained, seasonally refreshed outdoor classroom without any of the operational burden.

No capital outlay. No maintenance headaches. No compliance uncertainty. Just a space that transforms how children learn, looked after entirely by us.

Between us we bring over 20 years of combined experience in consultative business roles, understanding what organisations actually need, working within tight budgets, managing complex operations, and building partnerships that last. That background shaped everything about Beehive Tipis. We're not interested in selling a product and walking away. We're building long-term relationships with settings who want a partner, not a supplier.

What drives us is personal. As parents, we see the difference outdoor play makes in our own son's life: the curiosity, the calm, the joy that comes from being in nature. And we want every child to have that. Not just on sunny days or special occasions, but as a genuine, everyday part of how they learn and grow. And we see how many settings struggle to make it happen due to limited space, limited budgets, limited time, and the quiet pressure of inspections that make anything new feel like a risk.

Beehive Tipis exists to remove every one of those barriers. Everything from installation day onwards is managed by us: ongoing care, seasonal styling, compliance, the lot. The setting gets an extraordinary outdoor learning space that evolves with the seasons and impresses at inspection, without lifting a finger.