Admissions

We do not have a limited catchment area and it is up to families to decide how far they wish to travel, although we would recommend living within an hour's drive of the school.

We have families living as far north as Salisbury, as far east as Southampton, and as far west as Wareham and Dorchester.

There is a wide variety of locations to choose  from including towns, villages, forest side or near the sea. 

Many families choose to live locally so that they can cycle or walk to school.

There is also a school minibus service that operates from the school to Bournemouth, Westbourne, Southbourne, and Boscombe.

Please talk to Admissions if you would like some advice and further information on local areas.

The school operates on a Financial Contribution basis.  As children progress through the school, the expected contributions increase along with the amount of time that children attend.   

Younger children in Class 1 attend 5 mornings and have only one full day in school, whereas Class 2 have two full days in school.  By the age of 11, children attend full time and the contributions for the older classes reflect this. 

Our kindergartens are similarly costed for the number of mornings your child attends.  Early Years Funding is also available until the term in which your child turns 5. 

We aim to keep costs to a minimum and make Waldorf education as affordable and inclusive as possible. 

Further information on how the school operates financially can be found on the 'Financial Contribution' link below. 

Yes, of course we want whole families to join the school, so sibling discounts are applied.

Please see the 'Financial Contributions' link below for more details.

We are a community school which is funded almost entirely from the financial contributions of the families attending the school. This allows us to keep our independence and be able to offer a full Waldorf Curriculum right through the school to age 18.  As such, we do not currently offer bursaries to new families joining the school and expect them to be able to meet the contributions or to have a demonstrable plan of their own in place as to how they intend to meet the contributions. 

We are very much a community and you join the school as a family (it's not just for your child!).

Parents/guardians are expected to help clean their classroom and support their class teacher all through the year in a variety of ways.

We also encourage parents to get involved and volunteer their time and skills beyond their child's class in whichever ways they are able to and this can be very rewarding. We have a lot of parent-led groups which do wonderful work for the whole school all year around. This is part of joining the school.

However, as a charity with strict financial controls in place, we cannot exchange volunteer work for reductions in financial contributions.

We have a small SEN team which provides support for the whole school so our capacity to offer provision for special educational needs is limited.

Our class teachers are able to provide support for pupils with mild special educational needs as part of their day-to-day work with their whole class.

If your child requires specific SEN support, this will need to be discussed with Admissions before you make an application so that an assessment can be made on the school's capacity to meet the child's educational needs now and in the future.    

Further details can be found in our Admissions Policy. 

If your child has an EHCP, it is unlikely that funding would be transferred across to our school as our SEN provision has limited capacity.  As such, we are usually not able to accommodate children with EHCPs.

Our 3 kindergartens have up to 16 children.

In the Lower School and Upper School we have one class for each year group and our maximum number of pupils in each class is 25.

We invite all families to book an initial Zoom or phone call with Admissions when we will be able to advise you about the availability of spaces in your child's class.  If the class is full, you may complete an application and your child will then be placed on the waitlist.    

We are unable to add children to the waitlist until an application has been completed and submitted. 

Ringwood Waldorf School does not offer boarding at the school.

However, we work with a partner school (The Lewis School of English) who is able to assist families in finding host families for their child.  However, this will depend on the age and needs of the child.  

If we know what you are looking for as a family we can help point you in the right direction.

We are located in a diverse area, with plenty of choice from which to base yourselves.  We are on the outskirts of the market town of Ringwood and around 20 - 25 minutes from the large seaside boroughs of Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole.  Additionally, we are very close to a number of lovely small towns and villages within the the beautiful New Forest, Dorset and Hampshire countryside

Please let us know if you would further advice on the local area. 

Once families have completed an application for their child, we are able to hold a place in the relevant class for a maximum of one term.

Held places are still subject to an Educational Interview and half-term trial (see Application Process).

Your child's class teacher will work to support your child in class and develop ways of communicating effectively to help them settle in.

Depending on your child's understanding of English, we may recommend that extra English language lessons are organised.   

We have specialist teachers in our community and can help put these in place.