Banana Mountain is a democratic learning community for young people aged 6 - 18 based in rural Andalucia. Since 2019 we have been enacting a conception of learning environment as co-created eco-system, neither child-led nor adult controlled, but continuously in the process of being made by everyone involved and the relationships of care that connect us, our shared experiences, and the valley we call home.

In doing so, we aim to create the conditions which support and enable young people to cultivate responsible, caring, empowered, relationships with themselves, others, and the world, and build a solid foundation for the lifelong work of becoming good, responsible elders and good, responsible ancestors; to all life.

For several years we have been on a mission to open a full-time international school nested within a land-based centre for education, ecology, agro-ecology and the arts. Together these elements will form a living, learning system greater than the sum of its parts, providing young people the opportunity to co-create an education truly fit for our times.

We approach our mission with urgency; young people and the world we share with them need emancipatory alternatives now. We approach our mission with joy; creating those alternatives is beautiful work. We approach our mission with clarity; if our intentions and principles are clear and coherent so will be the actions that flow from them.