Admission policy.

1. About Waridi Cottage

Waridi Cottage Learning Centre is a boutique homeschooling and tutoring centre offering personalised academic programmes, international curriculum support, and learning grounded in nature, conservation and independent thinking. Because we work in small groups and shape learning around each child, places are limited and admission depends on our capacity to meet your learner’s needs.

2. Who we admit

We welcome learners from Preparatory Learning to A Levels. We are not academically selective: the admission process is designed to understand your child and to confirm that our approach and programmes are the right fit. Admission is never automatic, including for siblings of current learners, although siblings are given priority where places are limited.

3. Equal treatment

We admit learners regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability or social background, and we encourage applications from families of all backgrounds.

4. Learning support and special educational needs

We welcome learners with special educational needs and disabilities, provided we can give them the support they require. Please tell us about your child’s needs at the consultation so that we can discuss, honestly and in confidence, the adjustments we can reasonably make. Where relevant, we may ask to see an existing educational psychologist’s or medical report at the admission stage. We do not collect such reports through the online registration form.

5. The admission process

1. Register online. Complete the short registration form. Registration is free and does not commit you or us to admission.
2. Family consultation. We contact you to arrange a consultation, online or at the centre, to discuss your learner’s academic background, curriculum and goals.
3. Assessment and learner profiling. Where appropriate, an informal assessment helps us understand the support your child needs.
4. Recommendation and offer. We recommend a programme and, if we can meet your child’s needs, issue a written admission letter with the programme, start date and fees.
5. Acceptance. You accept the offer by confirming in writing and paying the registration fee and the first term’s tuition in full (section 7).

An offer lapses if it is not accepted, with payment, within 14 days of the admission letter, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

6. Documents at admission

After you accept an offer we will ask you to show us your child’s birth certificate (or other proof of age and parental responsibility) and the most recent school report, and to complete an emergency-contact and care form, including allergies or medical needs, on paper. We only ask for what we need, and we handle it as described in our privacy notice.

7. Fees and payment: all fees are payable in advance

• Registration fee: KES 30,000, paid once, on acceptance of the offer. It covers admission administration, initial learner profiling, academic assessment and individualised programme planning, and it is non-refundable.
• Tuition is charged per term (three terms a year) and is payable in full before the term begins. A place is secured only when the registration fee and first term’s tuition have been received.
• No learner may begin or continue lessons for a term until that term’s fees have been paid in full.
• Examination entry fees and additional external activities are charged separately, communicated in advance, and also paid in advance.
• Fees are reviewed annually. We give at least one term’s notice of any change.

All amounts in Kenya shillings, per learner. Payment details are given in your admission letter.

Tuition (pay-per-session)

• Tuition sessions are paid in full before the first session of each booked block; a session is confirmed once paid.
• Sessions cancelled with at least 24 hours’ notice are rescheduled; later cancellations or missed sessions count as used.
• To stop tuition, give 7 days’ written notice; paid sessions after the notice period are refunded or credited. There is no registration fee for tuition.

The full terms for your family are set out in the Parent Fee Agreement, which we ask you to sign before lessons begin.

8. Withdrawal and notice

If you wish to withdraw your child, please give one full term’s notice in writing to [email protected]. If less than a term’s notice is given, one term’s tuition is payable in lieu of notice.

9. Refunds

• The registration fee is non-refundable.
• Tuition paid for a term is not refundable once that term has begun.
• Tuition paid in advance for a term that has not yet begun is refunded if one term’s written notice has been given.
• If Waridi is unable to provide a programme it has accepted payment for, we refund the tuition for the lessons not provided.

10. Trial lesson and our two-week promise

• Every new family can ask for a trial lesson before committing. The price, if any, is shown on our fees page.
• If, within the first two weeks of your child’s first term, you decide Waridi is not right for your child, tell us in writing. We will first offer to change the group, teacher or way of learning; if you still wish to leave, we refund that term’s tuition for the weeks not yet taught. The registration fee is not refundable.

11. Curriculum support and examinations

Curriculum support does not imply formal accreditation or authorisation by the relevant examination or curriculum body. Waridi is not an examination centre: for external examinations such as IGCSE and A Levels, we connect families with registered examination centres where learners sit their papers.

12. Our partnership with families

By accepting a place, families agree to support Waridi’s approach to learning, to keep us informed of anything that affects their child’s learning or wellbeing, and to treat learners, staff and other families with courtesy and respect.

13. Withdrawal of an offer

We may withdraw an offer or place if information given during admission is materially inaccurate, if fees are not paid in advance as set out above, or if, after discussion with the family, we cannot meet the learner’s needs.

14. Changes to this policy and questions

We review this policy every year and will tell families of any changes. Questions or concerns: [email protected] or 0703 453 550 (call or WhatsApp).