Together we’re stronger
Discover how our partnership with Ardingly College gives us strength and resilience
Ardingly College and Great Walstead have a long history, working collaboratively as neighbouring independent schools. In 2024 we took a leap forward in this adventure and formed a partnership, with Great Walstead joining Ardingly College’s Family of Schools.
Around 30% of Walstead pupils move on to Ardingly College, where they thrive under the same educational ethos: to provide outstanding all-round education with the excitement of learning, right at its heart. Nurturing each individual child through their personal, academic, sporting, cultural and creative development.
As schools that share the same values, there are huge advantages to working in partnership. We create a smooth pathway for those transitioning from Great Walstead to Ardingly, allowing more time to focus on learning and less emphasis on senior school admission prep.
Much like our children, we’re always looking for ways to learn and adapt. Evolving to fit the ever-changing political, cultural and social landscape. Working alongside Ardingly we benefit from the expertise, strength and scale of the College’s family of schools. As well as becoming a member of the Woodard Group of Schools, a leading educational charity started by Ardingly College’s founder, Nathaniel Woodard.
Families in the area will continue to have two exceptional choices. The ‘through school’ option from the age of 3 through to 18 with Ardingly College, and at Great Walstead, a unique prep-school adventure right up to Year 8, opening the doors to an exciting range of senior schools.
In addition, there’s a significant financial benefit to joining forces. The merger allows us to keep fee increases to a minimum. Tuition fees will only increase by 5% from January 2025 and then a further 5%, plus inflation, from September 2025, with the College absorbing the remainder.
Our main priority at Great Walstead School is to maintain the exceptional learning environment and community, where every new day offers a new adventure. Our partnership with Ardingly makes us strong and gives us a secure base from which we’ll continue to grow.
FAQs
If you would like to find out more about our partnership, here are some frequently asked questions.
Yes. Each has a distinctive identity. They offer local families a clear choice of prep-school pathways: either the ‘through school’ option from the age of 3 through to 18 at Ardingly College, or the more traditional prep school route at Great Walstead with preparation for 13+ entry into a range of senior schools.
Great Walstead’s unique school identity creates a powerful sense of belonging and community among pupils, staff and parents. Ardingly College Prep School is fully integrated with the senior school, occupying the same site and with pupils wearing the same uniform and feeling part of the same school.
Ardingly was the right fit on every level. The culture and ethos of the schools are already aligned, there’s a pre-established, trusting relationship between school leaders and governors and they sit geographically close to each other.
With a new Labour government, VAT on independent school fees will be introduced from January 2025. We’ve worked hard to make sure that we have a plan to help limit the obvious impact of this change. Both for parents and for our school. By commencing our new partnership from the start of the 2024 academic year, we can offer parents, staff and our school communities confidence in how we plan to move forward together.
Before the election, Ardingly announced to parents that if – as was then widely expected – the new government introduced 20% VAT from September 2025, the College would share the burden with parents by passing on only half of the VAT, plus inflation, phased over two years, with the College absorbing the remainder. Over the summer holidays the government announced they were bringing forward the timescale, by imposing VAT from January 2025, a full two terms earlier than had been indicated before and during the election campaign.
As a member of Ardingly College’s family of schools, parents at Great Walstead will also benefit from the VAT mitigation measures that the College has planned.
The children at each school will not notice any change in their daily school lives. One of the aims of this partnership is to consolidate the quality of each school’s environment without disruption to pupils’ routines, changes to their teachers or any other significant aspect of their school experience.
The primary focus of both schools is, and will remain, to provide outstanding all-round education in an environment where care for each child, excellent teaching and excitement in learning are at the heart of all that we do.
We’ll continue to prepare pupils for entry into a range of senior schools at Year 9. There will be no change to the admissions process for the 2024/25 academic year for pupils in Year 6 who are applying for a 13+ place at Ardingly College’s senior school.
Going forward, we’ll explore ways to create a seamless application process for Walstead pupils whose first choice is Ardingly Senior School. Pupils will benefit from more classroom time learning and less time preparing for entrance assessments.
We plan to introduce a new Ardingly Family of Schools Scholarship programme, which will only be open to pupils in Ardingly College’s Prep and Lower Schools and to Great Walstead pupils.
The 11+ Family of Schools Scholarship will be effective for five years from Years 7 to 11. Great Walstead award holders will hold their scholarship at Great Walstead in Years 7-8 and at Ardingly in Years 9, 10 and 11. Great Walstead pupils currently in Years 7-8 will be able to apply for a 13+ Family of Schools Scholarship.
Both Ardingly College and Great Walstead pupils benefit from beautiful grounds and campuses of over 200 acres each. Great Walstead will be making some investments to ensure the buildings on its site are further improved while pupils at Ardingly’s Farmhouse site are enjoying a newly refurbished and renovated learning environment.
Our current priority is to absorb the impact of VAT-on-fees and do everything we can to keep fees affordable for our parents so that they can keep their children at either Great Walstead or Ardingly.