Raising Children in Neos Village
The children of a new paradigm world
The Children’s Fire
The vision of Neos Village as an inspiring model for life, is so comprehensive that we usually summarise the main points rather than dive deep into specific topics.
Yet core to the vision is the whole life journey of a child growing up here: how they thrive as the truest version of themselves, within the community and in relation to the bioregional and planetary context of how we steward a new world in a new energetic paradigm.
Everything that we are creating at Neos is designed to be of service to life. . . in the next generation and the following generations from that.
In this, we bring our knowledge of the current needs of children from an energy and consciousness perspective (a topic of expertise that I will write more on in the future).
I’ve also been inspired by Mac McCartney’s work with the Children’s Fire at Embercombe, where we filmed one of the Neos Academy masterclass series’.
“The Children’s Fire … is a song of love, to life. It is a commitment to the responsibility carried by each successive generation to safeguard the vitality and regenerative capacity of the earth. It is a mind-set, culture, philosophy and design principle. It can and must be observable within politics, religion, art, business, education, health services, economics and our daily lives.” - www.embercombe.org
Here is how we’re intending it, both from the perspective of village design + education design:
A village shaped around belonging
neos·village is not one sprawling development. We’re designing it as three distinct clusters, each holding smaller clusters within it.
Every path leans inward towards the centre, each other, and a fire circle with beautiful seating, terraced steps for gathering, perhaps a shared space with kitchen where families can spontaneously prepare a meal together with whoever happens to be around.
We know that the shape of a place influences culture. A village built for connection produces connection. Its architecture creates invitation.
Instead of a single, standardised playground, we envisage play spaces drawn from the land itself; a rewilding of what “play” even means. Fallen trees to climb. Natural obstacle courses instead of plastic slides. A forest-school sensibility, where the terrain is the toy.
Your children, held by more than you
Ask us what we most want a parent to feel here, and it’s this: that their child can walk to any house in the village and be welcomed in, fed, taken care of by someone who isn’t their parents, but who loves them anyway.
This isn’t a rule we’re writing into a handbook but rather the culture we’d love the whole village to support.
We’re also building childcare into the actual working life of the community: one of the Sociocracy Circles will be dedicated entirely to it: managing shared responsibility for daily play or educational sessions for instance.
An education that grows the whole child
‘Education’ should not simply fill a child’s head with facts and programming. We want it to facilitate the whole person: body, heart, mind, and spirit, together.
The adult framework at Neos Center has been built around three interconnected dimensions of being a skilled ‘New Human’. We will carry that exact same framework right through a child’s education, from their very first years:
Self — holistic health, self-realisation, self-leadership, and real connection with nature. Getting to know who they are. Growing the confidence to be and trust themselves.
Relational — understanding their own feelings and other people’s, learning to share and be fair, working well as part of a team, and belonging to the life of a real community.
Environmental — growing and cooking food, hands-on care for plants and animals, understanding how the spaces they live in are designed, and everyday habits of mindful, low-impact living.
As within, so without. A child who understands themselves relates better to others. A child who relates well to others cares more naturally for the world around them. None of these three dimensions grows in isolation; they grow together, the way roots, trunk, and branches grow together in a single tree which is then part of an ecosystem.
Forest School feels like our natural starting point, especially for the youngest children; nature itself as the classroom, before we build a fully operational permanent structure.
We’re also drawing inspiration from Montessori and Steiner education, both of which centre a child’s own development and lean into hands-on, sensory learning, while leaving behind the parts of each that feel shaped by an older era.
There will also be creative studios (for the whole village to use): art, pottery, music production, film.
And running through all of it: the thread of deeper self-knowledge. Age-appropriate ways of understanding one’s own consciousness, drawn from sacred wisdom traditions and knowledge of the current energetic potential.
Education in the Portuguese System
The route we’ll likely begin with is home education, which is regulated by national law in Portugal.
Every child can be formally registered with a host school, supported by a designated tutor, and sits national exams at the end of each cycle. That host school can be anywhere in Portugal, meaning the Village can build one strong, ongoing relationship with a school that feels most aligned, and organise curriculum mapping and exam preparation collectively.
A childhood spent growing food, building in the forest, and learning how a village works covers much of Portugal’s curriculum naturally; where it doesn’t, we’ll close the gap deliberately.
Language is part of the design. The official track runs in Portuguese, with room for bilingual teaching. For children arriving without Portuguese, the system examines non-native speakers at their own proficiency level while they catch up.
This is a gift. We’re not building an expat bubble in the Alentejo; children who grow up at Neos will belong to their wider environment.
You can read more from the Directorate-General for Education (DGE), Portugal's Ministry of Education here.
For teenagers, the same legal spine carries through, but there could be internationally accredited pathways for this age group, and Neos Center is where readiness for work becomes tangible: see below.
We also intend to explore creating an official school of our own. It requires two separate approvals: an education licence for the school itself (an educational project, qualified staff, adequate facilities), and a land-use approval for the building, which interacts with our development status and Montemor-o-Novo’s municipal plan.
This is a multi-year project and precisely why the home-education structure works from day one.
So essentially children at Neos can be legally registered, properly examined, and known to the Portuguese system (if this is what a parent wants), while their actual education happens where it should: in the village, in the forest, in the kitchen, in the world.
Teenagers rites of passage
Rites of passage has been, in one form or another, in almost every culture throughout human history.
Part of our vision is to bring it back: real, guided, initiatory experiences that mark and honour the transition into adulthood: into what it actually means to become a woman, or man in this current changing paradigm.
The same three dimensions: Self, Relational, Environmental, carry straight through the teenage years. What changes isn’t the framework, but the depth. Teenagers go further into each dimension, and start to consciously choose their own path through it.
Which brings us to the next chapter of this vision.
Neos Center: a training ground for the world your children will inherit
Surrounding our conference centre, we envisage something between a university, a dojo, and a living laboratory: offering real residential programs for young people and adults, mapped to the same framework that runs through everything we do:
Self — e.g. leadership and self-mastery training, holistic health programs, healing methods, rewilding and medicines.
Relational — e.g. governance training, community skills and team building. Socio-economic courses, power and politics, new paradigm culture bridge building.
Environmental — e.g. ecovillage design courses, permaculture and regenerative agriculture programs.
We’re building this with calm urgency. The world our children are growing into is one being reshaped by AI and by a changing climate. We believe young people are going to need real, human, practical skills more than ever: how to grow food, how to build community, how to work with new technology while staying rooted is what is real.
We imagine teenagers training alongside adults in this. Real internships, into the working life of the Village and Center: healing arts, facilitation, operations, land stewardship, and so much more. A tangible, visible path from learning, to doing, to genuinely contributing.
This is what we hope growing up at Neos will look like: rooted in nature, capable in the world, connected to a whole village that raised them, and ready for a future nobody else is quite preparing them for.
Please note, this is still a vision in motion. Ultimately we believe the families who will thrive here are the ones who want to help shape it, not just move into something finished.
If this speaks to you, we’d love to hear from you.
Last 2 Days for Early Birds
Join us for 4 days — a w a k e n — the Neos Experience — September 9-13
Deepen your inner peace and knowing through Sacred Presence with the Land
Activate your new culture building skills with the New Earth Ways
Dive into what it takes to build a village with Village Q&A
Expand your intuitive skills and energetic intelligence by exploring Relational Dynamics that Heal
Vision Quest for what becoming a ‘New Human’ means for you at this time?
Enjoy time to rest — regenerate — connect with likeminded others — watch sunsets — play — become renewed, inspired, activated.
Two days left for Early Bird rates. Prices go up on Saturday 1st August!
While each edition of the Neos Experience is unique, see our Instagram reel for a sense!
Such a beautiful and peaceful place, with amazing food and a truly heartfelt retreat experience. You can feel the conscious intention in everything, guiding you into a deeper connection with nature and life. — Jeanette