Key Info

Children attend Bamble three days per week (Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays), so we're not a drop in but a community for children where they can shape how the space works, make decisions together, arrange trips and activities and work on projects together. We run in blocks of about 6 weeks totalling 36 weeks/year with lots of long holidays.

Children may join from the September following their fifth birthday if they are ready. At present, we are prioritising places for children aged 10–13. There is a waiting list for younger children, and we are not currently able to accept new members over the age of 13 at the moment, but children who sign up will be able to stay up until 16+ .

Fees

Bamble is a non-profit childcare provision for home educated children. We can’t become a free school or state-funded because we refuse to test children or to follow a narrow and arbitrary national curriculum. We can only make this dream possible if all the families at Bamble contribute to the total costs - the venue hire, facilitator salaries, support costs. We’ll always keep our costs as low as we possibly can, and included within the cost are all resources and equipment, workshops, daily snacks and trips. Your fees help us to cover building and utilities, administration, resources and equipment, insurance and salaries. The full fee is £53 per day.

Some families may be able to receive a 20% top up through the tax-free childcare scheme (for children up to the age of 11 years old, or children with a disability up to the age of 16). This would bring the daily cost down to £43 per day.

If your family receives universal credit, you may be able to receive support for up to 85% of the fee, meaning that the daily fee you pay would be just £8.

For families with multiple children, your second child will receive a discount of 30% and your third child will receive a discount of 60%. That’s just £37 per day for your 2nd child, and £21 for any subsequent children.

Through our new accessibility fund, we offer up to a 20% discount for families on lower incomes who aren't eligible for the other schemes listed above. If the cost is still a barrier, please get in touch and have a conversation with us.

Steps to Enrolling

1. Read our information pack. It's really wordy at the moment but all the info in there is really important for understanding our approach. Please have a good read and make sure Bamble is right for you.

2. Complete our expression of interest form.

3. We will contact you to invite you for a visit. At the moment we are running Visiting Mornings roughly once every 3 months.

4. Join the waiting list.

5. When a space comes available, you will be offered a 3 week trial to see how it feels before signing up fully.

Please don't hesitate to email us to set up a call or if you have any questions.