Why Winta's Place exists

The alternative school in Bali we spent years searching for.

Winta's Place is a small, English-speaking holistic school in Ubud, Bali, created for children and teens who need something different from a large, rigid or purely academic classroom.

Through Thrive and Rise, we combine personalised academics with emotional development, communication, life skills, health, movement, nature, creativity and community.

Explore our story Meet Thrive & Rise

Students and teachers together outdoors at our small alternative school in Ubud, Bali

Download the parent guide

Why families are still searching

There are many schools in Bali — but finding the right fit is different.

The challenge is not that one model is wrong for everyone. It is that no single model suits every child. Many parents tell us they have visited excellent schools and still walked away knowing it would not work for their child.

Large, academically focused schools

Many offer impressive facilities, recognised curricula, strong academic expectations, large student communities and conventional pathways. For plenty of children that works well.

Some families discover their child needs something the size of the environment cannot give:

Smaller groups and less sensory overload
More emotional support and teacher attention
Personalised pacing and flexibility
Practical life skills
Learning built on interests and strengths

A child can achieve academically and still become anxious, disconnected, overwhelmed or unsure of themselves. Good grades alone do not guarantee self-worth, emotional regulation, communication, independence, healthy relationships, physical wellbeing, confidence, adaptability or a sense of direction.

Highly alternative or unstructured education

Many families in Bali are drawn to freedom-based, child-led and nature-rich environments — and rightly so. They offer creativity, exploration, time outdoors and space to be a child.

Some parents remain concerned about:

Measurable academic progress
Enough structure and consistent routines
Gaps in foundational learning
Whether interests become real capabilities
Preparation for future study, work and adult life

Many families tell us they are looking for a middle ground: enough structure for measurable progress, enough flexibility for the individual child, enough support for emotional and social development, and enough practical education to prepare them for life.

Specialist and special needs education

Some children need more than a smaller or more flexible classroom. Families searching for special education in Bali often struggle to find:

Individual Learning Plans
Small specialist classes
Functional academics
Communication and regulation support
Life-skills teaching
Therapy coordination
Appropriate developmental grouping
A genuinely social, active peer community

That gap is why we created Rise, our specialist learning program.

Winta's Place was created in the space between these models — not by rejecting academics, structure or specialist support, but by bringing the right elements together.

Built from lived experience

After 16 years of searching, the missing pieces became impossible to ignore.

For 16 years, Winta's mother searched for a school that could see and support her daughter as a complete person. Winta lives with a brain injury and developmental delay. She is verbal, active and social, and she deeply wants friendship, belonging and purpose.

Winta attended approximately six schools in Bali, and the search extended across several countries. Each place offered something valuable, but the essential pieces remained separated.

Academics happened in one place. Therapy happened somewhere else. Health, communication, friendships, life skills, emotional regulation and independence were treated as different issues managed by different people.

Winta was never a collection of separate issues. She was one whole, social, curious and deeply individual young person.

The experience did not only reveal what children with developmental needs were missing. It revealed how many children — sensitive, anxious, creative, neurodivergent, bullied, overwhelmed or simply different — were failing to thrive inside the available school models.

Eventually, the search became the blueprint.

Winta, a teenager, outdoors in Bali with her dog — the young person Winta's Place is named for — Winta — the young person this school is named for.

What adult transformation taught us about childhood

Children should not have to wait until adulthood to learn how to live well.

The original vision behind Winta's Place was also shaped by around 15 years of designing and running multidisciplinary wellness, mental-health and personal-transformation retreat programs for adults.

Adults arrived at those programs with anxiety, burnout, low confidence, poor emotional regulation, unhealthy routines, communication difficulties, relationship struggles, disconnection from their bodies, a lack of purpose and lives built around pressure rather than strengths.

The programs that created lasting change never worked on one isolated area. They addressed the whole system: mind, body, emotions, nutrition, movement, relationships, environment, communication, values, purpose and practical action.

Schools spend enormous energy preparing children for tests and qualifications, yet many young people reach adulthood without knowing how to understand themselves, regulate emotions, communicate needs, build healthy relationships, care for their body, prepare food, manage money, organise their lives, recover from setbacks, recognise their strengths or create a meaningful direction.

These are principles, not adult programs. Qualified educators translate them into age-appropriate schooling for children and teens.

What if children learned these skills while they were growing — not years later, when they were trying to repair what had been missed?

A calm, open-air learning space at our holistic school in Ubud, Bali

Teachers and specialists who make up the Bali-based team behind Winta's Place

Educators who knew children needed more

This was not one family's experience.

The teachers behind Winta's Place had witnessed the same problems from the other side of the classroom. They had worked inside other Bali schools and privately with children and families who could not find a suitable placement.

They had seen capable students lose confidence in large classrooms, children become anxious, disengaged or school-refusing, neurodivergent students receive too little individual attention, and children with developmental needs fall between mainstream and high-support environments. They had watched parents move repeatedly between schools and hire private teachers because nothing properly suited their child.

They knew the issue was rarely a lack of potential. The environment, class size, teaching method and level of support were wrong — and conventional ratios left teachers unable to provide what they knew a child needed.

Our Program Director and educational team now turn that shared experience into a professional, structured school program.

The middle ground families were asking for

Structured learning without losing the whole child.

Not academics at any cost

We value academic learning, but grades are never allowed to come at the cost of mental health, confidence, connection or self-worth.

Not freedom without foundations

Learning follows the student's level, interests and strengths — while keeping structure, goals, foundational academics, accountability and visible progress.

Not specialist support in isolation

Rise combines specialist learning with friendship, movement, creativity, community, health and the ordinary experiences of childhood.

The Winta's Place approach

Personalised academicsSmall classesClear goalsIndividual progressEmotional intelligenceSelf-regulationCommunicationLife skillsHealth and nutritionMovementNatureCreativityPassion-led learningCommunity and belonging

Enough structure to build capability. Enough flexibility to honour the child. Enough support to make progress possible.

Two programs · one whole-child philosophy

Because different children need different levels of support.

Thrive

Alternative Learning Program

For children and teens who can access a mainstream-style academic curriculum but need a smaller, calmer and more flexible learning environment.

Maximum eight students per classroom
Personalised academics
Low-pressure environment
Emotional support
Life-skills coaching
Communication and regulation
Passion-led learning
Nature, movement and creativity

Explore Thrive

Rise

Specialist Learning Program

For children and teens with developmental, intellectual or more complex learning needs — including autism, ADHD and developmental delay — who require greater individualisation and specialist support.

Maximum six students per classroom
Individual Learning Plans
Functional and personalised academics
Communication development
Self-regulation
Life skills and independence
Therapy coordination
Developmental goals

Explore Rise

Both programs use the same holistic curriculum. The student's level, pace, goals, teaching methods and support are personalised.

Explore the curriculum

The whole-human curriculum

We are preparing children for life — not only the next exam.

Academics at their level, emotional support, life skills and coaching, communication, self-regulation, community and connection, nature, fitness and movement, music, art and culture, passion-led learning, diet and nutrition.

The Winta's Place holistic curriculum wheel used across our alternative school in Bali: the whole child at the centre surrounded by academics, emotional support, life skills, communication, self-regulation, community, nature, movement, arts, passion-led learning and nutrition.

The world children are growing into demands more than memorised information. They need adaptability, emotional awareness, communication, resilience, critical thinking, health, practical skills and the confidence to understand who they are.

Academics are one essential part of the curriculum — not the entire curriculum.

See the full curriculum

The school we created

What families told us they needed.

Small by design

Maximum eight students per classroom in Thrive and six per classroom in Rise.

Personalised learning

Every student learns at their current academic and developmental level, in every subject.

Qualified educational leadership

The Program Director and teaching team oversee admissions, learning plans, progress and family communication.

A calm environment

Small groups, low sensory load, open-air spaces, nature and predictable daily rhythms.

Measurable progress

Academic, emotional, social, communication and life-skills development is tracked and shared with parents.

Fewer school closures

Only five fully closed weeks each year, with themed School Holiday Programs through most traditional breaks.

Support beyond the school day

Before-school, after-school, weekend, holiday and respite options for working and international families.

Bali becomes the classroom

Nature, village life, culture and community around Ubud create real-world learning every week.

Who we support Family support The place Fees Admissions

Who runs the school

A school led by educators.

Winta's Place is operated by its Bali-based educational team. The Program Director oversees the school, admissions, student programs and family onboarding, and is the person parents speak with from the first enquiry onwards.

Qualified teachers deliver academic and holistic learning. Specialist teachers and assistants support Rise, and visiting or network specialists contribute where appropriate. The team works through shared goals, weekly planning and clear communication with families.

Parents communicate directly with the Program Director and the school team — not through layers of administration.

How admissions work Contact the school team

A qualified teacher working one-to-one with a student in a small class at Winta's Place, Ubud

Mission, vision and purpose

What we are here to do.

Mission

To provide personalised, holistic education that helps children and teens become capable, connected, emotionally aware and confident whole humans.

Vision

A future where children are not forced to choose between academic progress and their emotional, physical, social and practical development.

Purpose

To create the school families in Bali have been searching for — a small, caring community where students learn at the right level, receive the right support and develop the skills needed for a meaningful life.

Our values

What guides every decision.

Whole-human education

Mind, body, emotions, relationships, health, academics and practical life are developed together.

Individual progress

Students are measured against their own starting point — not compared with everyone around them.

Academic foundations

Students receive structured, trackable learning at the level and pace that suits them.

Strengths before limitations

Interests, abilities and potential become the starting points for growth.

Small and connected

Students are genuinely known by their teachers and by each other.

Lived and educational experience

The school is shaped by families and educators who understand the reality of searching for the right school.

Consistency and trust

Progress grows through safe relationships, reliable support and a team working toward shared goals.

A school year designed for real family life

Only five fully closed weeks each year.

Most schools close for long stretches families have to cover themselves. We do the opposite.

Core academic school terms

Themed School Holiday Programs

Before-school and after-school care

Weekend options

Consistent staff and surroundings

Greater continuity for children

School Holiday Programs are themed, activity-led weeks — they are distinct from regular academic school terms, and are designed to give working and international families genuine continuity.

Explore the school year

Village and rice-field surroundings near Ubud used for outdoor learning weeks

About Winta's Place

Questions parents ask about schools in Bali.

What makes Winta's Place different from other schools in Bali?

We are deliberately small. Classes are capped at eight students per classroom in Thrive and six per classroom in Rise. Academics are taught at each student's actual level, and emotional development, communication, life skills, health, movement, nature and creativity sit inside the curriculum rather than being treated as extras.

Is Winta's Place an international school?

We are an English-speaking school for international and expat families in Ubud, and we teach an internationally recognised academic curriculum. We describe ourselves as a small alternative to large international school environments — not as a formally accredited international school.

Is Winta's Place an alternative school?

Yes. We are an alternative school in Bali in the sense that we do not run large, age-banded, exam-driven classrooms. We keep structure, goals and measurable progress — the flexibility is in level, pace, method and support.

Is Winta's Place an unschooling program?

No. Unschooling removes formal structure; we keep it. Students have timetabled academic learning, foundational literacy and numeracy, clear goals and progress that parents can see — inside a calm, flexible, interest-led environment.

Are academics part of the curriculum?

Yes. Academics are one essential part of the curriculum — not the entire curriculum. Every student works at their actual level in each subject, with goals and tracked progress. See the whole-human curriculum.

What is the difference between Thrive and Rise?

Thrive is our Alternative Learning Program for students who can access a mainstream-style academic curriculum but need a smaller, calmer, more flexible environment — maximum eight students per classroom. Rise is our Specialist Learning Program for students with developmental, intellectual or more complex learning needs — maximum six students per classroom, built around Individual Learning Plans.

Does a child need a diagnosis to enrol?

No. Thrive requires no diagnosis at all. For Rise we look at the support a student actually needs day to day rather than a label — existing reports simply help us plan. See who we support.

What are the class sizes?

Maximum eight students per classroom in Thrive and maximum six students per classroom in Rise, with teachers and assistants supporting each group.

Is the school suitable for expat and international families?

Yes. We are English-speaking and built for international and expat families living in and around Ubud, including families arriving mid-year. See the school and the area.

How many school holidays does Winta's Place have?

We close fully for only five weeks a year. Themed School Holiday Programs run through most traditional breaks, alongside before-school, after-school and weekend options. See the school year.

Who manages the school and admissions?

Our Bali-based Program Director oversees the school, admissions, student programs and family onboarding, supported by qualified teachers and specialists. Start at admissions.

See all frequently asked questions

If you have been searching Bali for a different kind of school, start here.

Whether your child needs a calmer alternative to a large school or a specialist program with greater developmental support, we begin by understanding who they are, what has not worked and what the right environment could make possible.

Talk to the school team Explore admissions Other ways to contact us

Download the parent guide