ThemPra Social Pedagogy

Behind ThemPra are the two directors Sylvia Holthoff and Gabriel Eichsteller, our company secretary Andy Carter, our two UK-based associates Robyn Kemp and Alexandra Priver, as well as our three Danish associates Lotte Harbo, Charlotte Firing and Christina Surel. Back in 2007, Sylvia and Gabriel developed and facilitated the first social pedagogy seminars in the UK for the pilot project run by the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care and funded by the Social Education Trust (SET). As part of that project Robyn introduced us to residential child care in the UK, and Lotte was one of the social pedagogues who contributed to the other part of the NCERCC pilot project. Through this project we also met Mike Tidball, former trustee of the SET, who helpe us set up ThemPra and acted as third director and company secretary until his retirement in July 2010.

Since then ThemPra has grown, and we've met many more people who have become friends. Alex Priver started work with us on the Essex project in early 2010 as co-facilitator. Andy Carter joined us in August 2010 with lots of excitement and creative ideas to take over Mike's role and expand it further. And Christina Surel and Charlotte Firing began their introduction to the world of ThemPra in February 2011.

In order to drive social pedagogy forward and to expand from these experiences we have set up a social enterprise which symbolizes the synergy of social pedagogy in theory and practice: ThemPra. ThemPra stands for TheorymeetsPractice, which reflects our style of working and way of thinking. We have set ourselves the ambitious overarching aim to support the development and implementation of social pedagogy in the UK in various ways. Find out more about who we are and ThemPra's aims and our ethos in this section ...