Schools & Learning Communities
Give students something meaningful to do together.
Creative confidence. Real participation. Skills practiced in the moment.
Wicked Rae’s partners with schools to design immersive learning experiences where students make choices, test ideas, adapt, listen, and create together.
Through expressive art, purposeful movement, rhythm, sensory exploration, and reflection, we help schools turn values like curiosity, collaboration, and belonging into experiences students can take part in - not just words on a wall.
Seattle-based. Available for on-campus partnerships across the United States.
Recurring Workshops · Cohort Pilots · School Culture Partnerships · Family and Educator Experiences · Collaborative Legacy Art
Your school experiences should show students what your values feel like.
You want students to bring ideas forward, recover when a plan changes, and make room for someone else’s contribution. You want a new student to find an opening into the group. You want learning to reach beyond the worksheet and into the way students work with one another.
We want those, too.
And we know those qualities grow through opportunities to practice.
Shared artwork gives students a reason to listen and negotiate. An unfamiliar material invites them to experiment. A rhythm challenge asks them to notice, respond, and coordinate. A moment of reflection helps them connect what just happened to the way they learn and participate elsewhere.
Wicked Rae’s designs those moments around your school’s priorities, age groups, and community.
What students do together matters long after the activity ends.
A student might begin unsure, watch a peer try something unexpected, then test an idea of their own. Another may find a useful role in the group by noticing details, keeping rhythm, making space, or helping the shared project move forward.
The point is not to make every student participate in the same way. It is to create a well-facilitated experience with meaningful ways to enter, contribute, pause, and reflect.
Schools use Wicked Rae's experiences to support:
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Student connection during transitions and new-student onboarding
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Collaboration and communication across a grade or cohort
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Creative risk-taking, experimentation, and flexible thinking
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Student voice, contribution, and shared ownership
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Experiential learning that complements classroom priorities
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Family connection and visible school-community milestones
We agree on the goal and what the school hopes to notice. We do not promise that one experience will create lasting behavior change or solve a schoolwide challenge. Often times, we need to work together multiple times to witness the growth from consistency.
The Wicked Method™
We bring expressive arts, purposeful movement, rhythm, sensory exploration, collaboration, and reflection into a facilitated sequence. Activities are selected for your learning focus, student age, available space, and participation needs.
Explore
Meet unfamiliar materials, movement, or possibilities in a supported setting.
Create
Make choices, test ideas, adapt, and contribute something of your own.
Connect
Listen, coordinate, negotiate, and build alongside other people.
Reflect
Notice what happened and consider where the same skill might matter next.
This is not a craft kit with a lesson attached. The activities work together to give students a memorable reason to practice the skills your school wants to bring forward.
Experiences designed for schools that want learning to be active.
Some schools are rethinking what students do with the school day: how they build independence, learn real-world skills, stay engaged, and grow beyond academics. Wicked Rae’s experiences and partnerships are designed for schools that see value in student agency and learning by doing.
For forward-thinking learning communities and schools, our work complements experiential workshops and life-skills learning with guided opportunities to practice creativity, collaboration, communication, adaptability, and reflection.
Engagement with Wicked Rae's
Choose the experience that matches your present goals.
Focused School Experience
A purposeful first experience for a class, grade, or school community.
Choose a clear priority, such as welcoming a new cohort, giving students a collaborative challenge, or adding a memorable experiential-learning day. We plan the activity, schedule, group format, responsibilities, and price before booking. A first experience can help both teams assess fit and participation.
Best for:
a first engagement, a transition, an enrichment day, or a defined community moment.
Annual School Partnership
A coordinated learning plan across the school year.
Connect experiences to the moments that shape a school year: beginnings, transitions, community-building, student leadership, and closing reflections. The proposal defines goals, cadence, audiences, activities, roles, and evaluation so each session connects to the next.
Best for:
schools ready to make experiential practice a planned part of student and community life.
1:1 Student Creative Support
More time and individual attention for a student who needs a different pace.
Some students need more time, a quieter setting, or a one-to-one relationship to take part in creative work. We work with the school to explore whether individualized experiential art and reflection are an appropriate support for a student navigating a difficult period. The approach is planned with the school’s designated contact, the family, and the student’s existing support team.
Best for:
a school that believes a student may benefit from individualized creative participation and can provide an appropriate referral, consent, and support structure.
School Culture Pilot
A defined series built around one school priority.
Work with one grade, cohort, or student group over an agreed period. Together, we identify what students will practice, how activities build across sessions, what educators will observe, and what feedback will help determine a next step.
Best for:
schools that want to test a focused approach before expanding it.
Family and Educator Experiences
Bring the wider school community into the experience.
Add a family workshop, educator session, or collaborative legacy artwork when it reinforces the school’s goals and gives students and adults a way to create alongside one another.
Best for:
a first engagement, a transition, an enrichment day, or a defined community moment.
Legacy Art Installation
Create a work that carries your school’s story forward.
Bring students, families, educators, alumni, or community partners together to create an artwork that reflects what your school values, remembers, and hopes to pass on. A legacy project can begin with one cohort or milestone and be designed for future groups to add to over time.
We work with school leaders to shape the purpose, contributor groups, participation plan, artwork format, and next steps. Site review, materials, accessibility, finishing, display or installation, documentation, maintenance, and future additions are scoped to the project. Permanent and outdoor installations require additional planning and are not assumed in a standard workshop.
Best for:
founding or graduating cohorts, campus openings, school transitions, anniversaries, and communities that want a tangible expression of shared history and possibility.
Built by people who understand how experiences shape participation.
Wicked Rae’s was founded by Jules McVey and Oakley Rae, a mother-daughter team whose professional expertise and lived experience shape how they meet people in the room.
Jules is an organizational psychologist and sleep medicine specialist with 20+ years of experience in change management, opening sleep labs, teaching and guiding directors and staff, firefighting, and overseeing specialty services in hospital settings including the ICU, ER, Sleep Medicine, Primary Care, and Prosthetics. Her work has involved helping people and complex teams navigate change, care, and demanding environments. Her lived experience informs her respect for how differently people need to be met when life becomes difficult. She even did artwork and acting for TV at 16.
Oakley is a master fabricator who brings a maker’s eye for materials, construction, and the details that help a creative experience feel inviting. She has a rare ability to help young people feel welcomed and safe in the room, while offering choice, attention, and room to participate in different ways.
Together, Jules and Oakley design experiences that ask students to do more than watch: notice, make, move, adapt, and contribute. For an individual student, they can also explore whether a one-to-one creative format offers a useful additional way to engage, in coordination with the school’s support structure.
Our work has served students, educators, families, and teams across schools, nonprofits, and organizations. Each school partnership is planned with the people responsible for the students and the day.
On-campus delivery means your students can participate at school, with travel and site logistics agreed in advance.
For parents: You want your child to be known, to find their people, and to keep trying when something feels unfamiliar. Our experiences create opportunities to explore those skills through making, movement, and shared participation.
Define what you want to learn before the first paintbrush.
A useful partnership starts with a specific question. What would you like more students to try? Where do you want students to contribute, connect, or adapt? What might teachers notice if the experience is a good fit?
When evaluation is included, we agree on a proportionate approach. Depending on age and scope, it may include student reflections, teacher observations, participation patterns, or family feedback.
A learning summary can include:
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The experiences delivered and skills students had opportunities to practice
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Participation and feedback gathered through agreed methods
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Patterns educators noticed, alongside relevant limitations
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Recommendations for a next phase or adjustment
Enjoyment, immediate participation, observed behavior, and longer-term change are different kinds of information. We report them separately. A survey does not measure brain activation or prove lasting change.
Thoughtfully facilitated. Planned with your school.
Before confirming a program, we review:
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Student ages, group size, schedule, and participation format
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School goals, curriculum language, and the adults responsible for the group
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Space, access, supervision, setup, cleanup, and any power or outdoor needs
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Sound, lighting, materials, pacing, breaks, and lower-intensity options
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Artwork finishing, storage, display, delivery, or installation responsibilities
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Budget, travel, and any freight or production needs
Students should have meaningful choices in how they participate. We discuss access and sensory considerations with the school team in advance. Please do not send student names, diagnoses, or confidential records through the inquiry form. Your school remains responsible for its required student supervision and support.
For larger groups, we may recommend cohorts or rotations so students have a real opportunity to participate. Travel and site logistics are scoped before the proposal is finalized.
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I saw shy kids become confident. I saw anxious kids relax. I saw kids who usually don't participate take creative risks. One 2-hour experience changed how they see themselves. That's powerful.
Michelle, 4th Grade Teacher, Bellevue School
Let’s see if we’re a fit.
We work best with schools that have a student or community priority in mind, a school contact who can plan with us, and the resources to deliver the agreed scope. Tell us what you’re trying to make possible. We’ll review the fit and recommend an appropriate next step.
School Partnership Inquiry Form
FAQs
Q: What is an experiential SEL school partnership?
A: An experiential SEL partnership uses facilitated activities to give students opportunities to practice social-emotional skills. Wicked Rae’s combines tactile art, movement, rhythm, collaboration, and reflection around goals agreed with your school.
Q: How is Wicked Rae’s different from an assembly or an art workshop?
A: Our distinction is the integrated design of The Wicked Method™. We connect multiple creative and physical activities to a school-selected learning focus, with reflection and optional evaluation. The experience is designed for participation, not only watching a presentation or completing a craft.
Q: Do you work with private and independent schools?
A: Yes. We welcome inquiries from private and independent schools seeking purposeful creative enrichment, student connection, and ongoing school culture partnerships. We review fit, scope, and availability with each school.
Q: Can the program complement our existing SEL curriculum?
A: Yes. We discuss the language, competencies, and priorities you already use, then identify relevant activities and reflection prompts. Any curriculum mapping or educator support is defined in the proposal. Using CASEL’s framework does not imply CASEL certification or endorsement.
Q: Can you accommodate sensory sensitivities or different support needs?
A: We discuss participation needs with your school team before confirming the experience. Options may include adjusted sound or lighting, alternative materials, breaks, and different participation roles. We agree on what can be provided and what support the school needs to supply. Please do not submit individual student diagnoses through the inquiry form.
Q: Are these programs therapy?
A: No. Our school partnerships provide creative enrichment and experiential learning. We can coordinate with school support staff, but we do not advertise treatment for anxiety, ADHD, trauma, or other clinical conditions.
Q: Do you measure SEL outcomes?
A: Evaluation can be included in the partnership scope. We select relevant questions and observations with the school, then summarize feedback and patterns. Surveys do not measure brain activation, and immediate post-session feedback does not establish lasting change.
Q: Can we begin with one experience?
A: Yes. A purposefully designed first experience can help you assess participation, delivery fit, and interest in continuing. Recurring partnerships offer more opportunities for practice and follow-through. There is no established minimum of three Wicked Rae’s events that guarantees sustained change.
Q: Do you travel to schools across the United States?
A: Yes. Wicked Rae’s is based in Seattle and available for school partnerships across the United States, subject to scheduling and site requirements. Travel, freight where needed, setup, and delivery are scoped in your proposal.
Q: How many students can participate?
A: Capacity depends on ages, activities, available space, staffing, and schedule. For larger groups, we may recommend rotating cohorts. Tell us your expected participation so we can assess the right format.
Q: What happens to the artwork?
A: Depending on the agreed design, students may create individual pieces, a collaborative artwork, or a school legacy piece. Materials, finishing, display, delivery, and installation responsibilities are specified in the proposal.
Q: How much does a school partnership cost?
A: Partnerships are quoted according to the program, group size, facilitation, materials, customization, evaluation, and travel. Share your planning budget in the inquiry form so we can assess a realistic scope.
Q: What does the school need to provide?
A: The proposal identifies the school’s responsibilities, including an on-site contact, appropriate supervision, access to the agreed space, scheduling, and any required site resources. We clarify these before booking.