Wonder Wander: Why We Walk (and Talk) for Philosophy
Thoughtful blog for Wonder Wander 2026
Every year, Thoughtful does something a little unconventional to raise awareness of our work and to raise the money we need to make it happen. We go for a Wonder Wander, a day of walking and talking that is powered by philosophical questions.
While many charities fundraise with galas, marathons and skydives, we’ve opted for something closer to our own values. The challenge is to talk about as many philosophical questions as possible as you walk in your local town or city, hills, beaches or parks. This feat of endurance is measured by sore heads and hoarse voices, rather than blistered feet. It can be a little chaotic, always fun and somewhat challenging, but captures exactly what we do the rest of the year: creating space for people to think out loud, together.
To understand why we fundraise like this, it helps to understand who we are. Thoughtful (previously known as SAPERE) has championed philosophy for children and communities (P4C) since 1992, making us the UK’s longest-running charity dedicated to philosophical enquiry. Our mission didn’t change with our name: we believe too few people have the opportunity to think for themselves and with others, and that this gap falls hardest on the most disadvantaged. We close it by training teachers, running classes, and building resources that bring the discipline of asking good questions into classrooms, communities and homes across the UK.
That mission is bigger than any single campaign. Through three decades of teacher training, our work has reached an estimated 1.67 million children in classrooms where teachers we’ve trained have gone on to run regular P4C sessions. We focus that effort where it counts most: schools facing high levels of disadvantage, children in care, and communities least likely to get a say in how they’re taught. As NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede argued in the Guardian, philosophy shouldn’t be the preserve of a privileged few – it should be available to every young person, whatever school they attend.
Wonder Wander began in 2024, as an experiment. Neither a sponsored walk nor a sponsored talk, our Co-Directors Grace and Emma set off on foot dressed as Wonder Woman (fittingly for a women-led charity!) with a challenge: they would walk and talk until they had discussed every question donated to them. Children, parents, teachers, philosophers, educationalists and public figures sent in questions, and Grace and Emma worked their way through all 50 of them, mile after mile, as they tackled the beautiful hills of the Peak District. They talked about our mission with bemused walkers, they were blown over by the wind, they were intrigued, maddened and delighted by the donated questions, and they laughed a lot.
It shouldn’t have worked as a fundraiser, but it did. Supporters donated cash alongside their questions, and by the end of the day we’d raised enough to fund four free after-school philosophy clubs in schools across the UK — exactly the kind of provision that, without fundraising, simply wouldn’t exist.
In September 2025, the Wonder Wander grew up a little. Grace, Emma and Thoughtful trainer Dr Maria Prodromou took an Urban Wonder Wander through London, while other Thoughtful colleagues ran their own versions in Derbyshire, Devon and Southampton. Broadcaster Ritula Shah and Olympian Kriss Akabusi were among those who donated questions, alongside members of the public who’d followed the campaign from its first outing. This time, the money raised funded a term of online philosophy sessions for care-experienced young people – children too often overlooked by exactly the kind of provision that could help them most. There were roughly 107,000 children in care across the UK in 2022/23, a number that has grown 8% in five years, many carrying experiences of trauma, neglect or displacement that leave them at a disadvantage in school and in life. Philosophical enquiry can’t undo that. But it can give a child practice at building an argument, sitting with disagreement, and having their voice properly heard – skills that matter more, not less, for children who’ve had less control over their own story.
That’s really the point of Wonder Wander, beyond the money it raises. It’s a physical, public version of what P4C asks of everyone who takes part: show up, stay curious, and be willing to walk alongside people whose questions you didn’t expect. It’s a fittingly odd format for a charity that has spent over thirty years insisting the best learning happens when people talk to each other, not at each other. As P4C’s founder, the philosopher Matthew Lipman, put it: “I do not think it is possible to speak seriously about education without philosophy as a component.” Ask any of our trainers and they’ll tell you a version of the same story: a shy child who spoke up in an enquiry for the first time; parents who started resolving playground disputes over tea and biscuits instead of confrontation; a class that argued fiercely about a hard question and stayed friends afterwards. Wonder Wander exists to fund more of those moments. And because every Wonder Wander is fuelled by questions from the public, it does double duty – raising both money and awareness, reminding people that philosophy isn’t a university subject reserved for a few, but a practical skill that belongs in every classroom and to everyone.
For 2026, Wonder Wander is changing shape again. This year, we’re inviting University Partners to run their own sponsored Wonder Wanders during Freshers’ Week – helping new students or local communities get to know their city, their campus, and each other, while raising money for Thoughtful. Universities are a natural home for this: they’re full of people who have just arrived somewhere new, curious about the place they’ve landed in, and open to seeing it differently.
We’re delighted that the first university Wonder Wander is happening in Oxford, hosted by the Uehiro Oxford Institute in partnership with Uncomfortable Oxford. Uncomfortable Oxford’s walking tours – led by university researchers – ask people to look past the postcard version of the city and into its more complicated history: whose stories get told, whose don’t, and why. That’s not a bad description of what we try to do with P4C, either. Both projects start from the same instinct: that a good question, honestly asked, is worth more than a comfortable answer.
Every Wonder Wander since 2024 has funded something concrete: four after-school clubs, a term of sessions for care-experienced children, and now, the small team of part-time staff who work with schools and communities to train and support educators and young people, and who keep the wheels turning so we can keep telling these stories.
Wonder Wander can’t happen without people like you donating their questions, their time, or their money along the way. If you’d like to be part of the next chapter – by joining a Wonder Wander, donating to one, or bringing the campaign to your own city or university – we’d love to hear from you at [email protected].
