Ignite · Half day
Half-Day Workshop
A$3,500
Three hours on campus, the Wonder act and the Wisdom act, run with a year group.
θαῦμα
Wisdom & Wonder · Programmes
Every child is a hero
not yet revealed.
Six ancient virtues, brought into classrooms and kitchens and taught the way the ancients taught: wonder first, then wisdom. Programmes for schools, educators and families.
Explore the programmesMake an enquiry
- For students
- For educators
- For families
ἀρετή
Why this exists
They were never built differently.
They were revealed.
Every hero you have ever loved was once a young person nobody had noticed yet. Sitting at the back of a room. Certain the brave ones were built differently. They were not. They were revealed, one storm, one choice, one small rep at a time, by someone who looked them in the eye and said: the harder road exists, it has a name, and you were always able to walk it.
What we measure, we manage. What we form, we live. The character built into a child today is the world we will all live inside tomorrow. Wisdom & Wonder is that forming, done deliberately and warmly, with stories worth carrying into a classroom and a table to carry them to.
“Children are one hundred per cent of our future. Let us form them as if it were true.”
Marcus J Emsley · The Guide
σοφία
The signature
Wonder first.
Then wisdom.
Plato wrote that the love of wisdom begins in wonder. So every Wisdom & Wonder session, from a three-hour workshop to a twenty-week curriculum, is built in the same two acts.
Act I · θαῦμα
Wonder
A fable, a myth, a true story or a marvel of the natural world: the kind that leaves a room quiet for a moment, thinking. The heart opens before the head does.
Act II · σοφία
Wisdom
What the story planted, named in plain words a young person can hold: one virtue, one idea, and one practice to carry out of the room and into the week.
And then, pass it on. Every virtue ends with a step called Pass It On, so young people learn to live the virtue in front of others: younger students, team-mates, friends, family.
The six virtues
One shared language,
walked in the same order.
Fortitude, Wisdom, Love, Courage, Temperance and Gratitude. Each has its own colour, its own symbol and its own story, so a Year 7 classroom, a staffroom and a kitchen table can all speak the same words.
- IFortitudeἀνδρείαThe Lighthouse
IIWisdomσοφίαThe Gold Pan & Journal
IIILoveἀγάπηThe Lavender & Book
IVCourageθάρσοςThe Windmill
VTemperanceσωφροσύνηThe Conductor
VIGratitudeχάριςThe Garden
παιδεία
For schools
A ladder for the
whole school.
Four rungs, in the order most schools climb them. Each stands on its own, and each prepares the ground for the next. Every one carries the same two acts and the same six virtues.
- IIgniteLight the spark
Ignite · Full day
Full-Day Workshop
A$5,500
Everything in the half day, plus time with your teachers and an evening with your parents, so the language reaches home.
- IILeadForm the young leaders
Rung II
The Emerging Leadership Cohort
A$9,500
For a selected group of students stepping into leadership, walked through the six virtues together.
- IIIEquipWalk it with your staff
Rung III
The Educators’ Cohort
A$9,500
The same shape, built for staff, because a school forms its students most powerfully when its teachers have walked the framework first.
- IVEmbedMake it part of the year
Rung IV · Embed
The 20-Week Year 7 Curriculum
By enquiry
Twenty weeks woven into the school year, pairing ancient philosophical figures with modern exemplars, so the six virtues become part of how a year group learns.
The Webinar Series, and other formats by direct enquiry. Workshops and cohorts are delivered for schools and youth groups. Tell us what your community needs and we will shape it with you.
οἶκος
For families
The kitchen table is
a classroom too.
Two ways to bring the six virtues home. Wisdom & Wonder Online opens in January 2027. The Table opens on 1 January 2027.
The online course
Wisdom & Wonder Online
The six virtues, made for home.
A self-paced course for children, families and teachers. Each virtue is a story, a teaching and a practice: simple enough for a busy kitchen, deep enough to last a lifetime.
- Six stories, six virtues, six stones to gather
- No chat, no community, no strangers
- Nothing to sell to children
Six weeks of family reconnection
The Table
A$397 per family
Six conversations. One table. The parent goes first.
Two guides walk side by side: My Signal for young people aged 12 to 17, and The Invitation for parents. Each week brings one table conversation, one virtue at a time, in the order of the six.
- Six weeks · six virtues · six conversations
- A guide for your teenager and a guide for you
- The parent always goes first
οἶκος
The Table · Opens 1 January 2027
Set the table again.
Six conversations. One table. The parent goes first.
The Table is a six-week guided journey for families: My Signal for young people aged 12 to 17, The Invitation for parents, and one real conversation at your own table each week, one virtue at a time.
- Before you beginHow it works, why the parent goes first, and The First Conversation
- Weeks one to sixFortitude, Wisdom, Love, Courage, Temperance, Gratitude: your chapter, their chapter, one conversation at the table
- After week sixKeeping the table set
A$397 per family · once, yours to keep
The Table opens on 1 January 2027. Register your interest and you will be first through the door.
The Table
Register your interest
Name and email only. We will write to you about The Table and nothing else. No sharing.
τέλος
What you can expect
What changes in the room,
and at the table.
For educators and school leaders
- A shared languageSix virtues with the same names in every classroom, staffroom and home, so a conversation started in one place can be finished in another.
- Students who lean inEvery session opens with a story and a moment of wonder, so young people are listening before the teaching begins.
- Tools to carry backSimple practices that fit pastoral care, leadership programmes and the ordinary rhythm of a school week.
- Care built inFacilitator notes point to your school’s child-safety and wellbeing procedures wherever a prompt could lead to a disclosure.
For parents and carers
- Better conversationsSomething truer to talk about than “how was your day?”, with a story to start it and a question to keep it going.
- A rhythm that fitsShort enough for a weeknight, honest enough for the big questions, and built for real families with full calendars.
- Children trusted with something realNo marks, no tests and no lectures. Young people are treated as capable, and they rise to it.
- You walk it togetherParents go first and model the practice, so the whole household grows, not only the child.
ὁδηγός
About the Guide
Marcus J Emsley
The Guide · Founder of Arete Estate
Marcus spent seventeen years as a welfare officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, at home and on operations overseas, sitting with people in grief, trauma and the mornings they did not want to rise. He is the founder of Arete Estate in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, and the creator of The Sculptor’s Journey and Wisdom & Wonder.
He is the son of a primary school teacher who coached footy, cricket and life, and a palliative care nurse who showed him what kindness at the hardest door looks like. He brings both of those inheritances into every room he shares with young people and the adults who care for them.
ἀρχή
Make an enquiry
Bring Wisdom & Wonder to your school or your family.
Tell us a little about your students or your family, and what you are hoping for. We will reply personally to talk it through.
- Send your enquiryChoose a programme, or “Not sure yet”.
- A conversationYour students, your goals and your calendar.
- A plan and a dateShaped around your community.
Prefer to write? info@areteestate.com.au
The enquiry
Tell us about your community
Your details are only used to reply to your enquiry. No mailing list, no sharing.
