Financial Implications
Wonder Valley’s financial viewpoint is driven by three concerns.
Firstly, that the school should be accessible to all parents who are seriously interested in the cause of holistic education and therefore the paying capacity should not be the only criterion to admit a child. This means that we would be ready to offer partial and full scholarships in the future once a certain level of financial stability has been achieved.
Secondly, we are situated amidst a number of small villages whose children have been trapped for at least three generations in a vicious cycle of socio-economic challenges, from overspending and from the impacts of dropping out of school, premature marriages, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, and chronic gambling. We cannot operate in isolation from this while being here and would like to become an active part of the local community, making holistic education accessible to the children living here.
Thirdly, our class sizes should remain small, with a high teacher to student radio to enable a close relationship between them.
Given the above commitments, there is likely to be a shortfall between our income and expenditures, to the extent that fundraising will necessarily be an essential aspect of running Wonder Valley, particularly in the beginning stages when our community and approach to education is less known.
It is our intention that the strategies used to make the Wonder Valley more financially sustainable should take into consideration aspects of raising visibility and local understanding of holistic learning in the wider communities. We aim to do this in several ways:
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- Conduct outdoor, experiential activities for children from the city during weekends or holidays.
- Conduct educational workshops at community spaces in public areas such as universities, town libraries.
- Rent out learning facilities and campus space to interested groups for extracurricular activities (once it is constructed).
- Sell value-added farm produce from our garden.
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