Wonder Intercultural School

Things we can do as a small, child-led, community based school Part 3.

Mixed-age classrooms. Mixed classes offer significant benefits by fostering a collaborative, family-like environment where students learn at their own pace, reducing competitive pressure and labels.
These settings enhance social-emotional growth, encouraging empathy, mentorship, and leadership in older children while providing guidance for younger peers.

Once upon a time, a fantastic group of students decided to build a Wonder Garden. Their story begins by turning “waste” into life. Acting as environmental chemists, they collect fruit peels and dried leaves to make compost, watching microorganisms transform yesterday’s lunch into rich, dark soil called black gold. They discover that sustainability is not just an idea, but a real cycle where one ending fuels a new beginning.

Once the soil is ready, the focus shifts to the plants. Students save seeds from their favourite fruits and plant them in recycled egg cartons filled with their homemade compost, checking each day for the first green shoots to wake up.

If the weather allows, the seedlings are transplanted into raised beds. Here students learn the practical side of gardening such as spacing plants, checking soil moisture, and watching for bugs. They share responsibilities and see how sunlight and rainfall shape the health of their crops.

What will we grow?
Stay tuned to see how this Project Based Learning story ends.

Things we can do as a small, child-led, community based school Part 2.

Mixed-age classrooms. Mixed classes offer significant benefits by fostering a collaborative, family-like environment where students learn at their own pace, reducing competitive pressure and labels.
These settings enhance social-emotional growth, encouraging empathy, mentorship, and leadership in older children while providing guidance for younger peers.

Wonder School on tour!
Well to Bumbang anyway, for another Fun Friday. Ani and Dave have set up a fantastic space called DnA Learning Zone, a play-based learning place immersed in nature.
At Wonder School we are always looking at different and new approaches to learning and the opportunity to hang out with the gang did not disappoint. The students enjoyed themselves so much the didn’t want to come home!
Watch out for more collaboration in the future run by our new volunteer Maartje.

Things we can do as a small, child-led, community based school
Part 1.
Mixed-age classrooms. Mixed classes offer significant benefits by fostering a collaborative, family-like environment where students learn at their own pace, reducing competitive pressure and labels.
These settings enhance social-emotional growth, encouraging empathy, mentorship, and leadership in older children while providing guidance for younger peers.

Wonder School students recently visited a local community pottery village to explore our term theme of ‘How Things Change Over Time’. It was an opportunity to see 1,000 year old technology still in practice today.
The children observed and then took part in the process of using local clay and watched artisans at their potters’ wheels creating hand-thrown pieces. Seeing a traditional wood-fired kiln in person helped us understand how these methods have remained consistent even as the world around them has evolved. This visit provided a practical look at how ancient craftsmanship maintains its place in our modern community.

The best part of Wonder School is our fantastic community. We were so lucky to welcome Michelle, a fantastic yoga teacher, to guide us through our favourite animal poses and help us centre ourselves surrounded by the peaceful bamboo classroom/ yoga shala for the day.🙏🏽

Our theme this term is ‘How things change over time’
We are using this to inquire into processes we take for granted in our daily life.
This week capturing images or rather light using cyanotypes.
All that time for one single image, imagine!

Last week, we experienced flooding near to our school, it was bad in Kuta center, all the students were talking about it..
What do we do at Wonder School?

We take Emilia Reggio’s principle of ‘the environment is the 3rd teacher’ and we include our wider environment and let it teach us.
Floods, why do they happen?
What happens to the trees?
Why does the ground wash away?
What effect does the rubbish have?

‘When the weather gives us floods, we lead an inquiry’.

This is dynamic, responsive, real-world learning in action.

🌱 New location, new adventures🌱

This school year we have changed location and we couldn’t be happier about this new chapter. We are now much more connected to nature, and in tune with the daily rhythms of life in Lombok.

We went for our daily walk with the students, collecting plants and different natural elements along the way. Afterwards, we all came together to use these materials to express ourselves, freely painting and colouring with what nature had given us.

A beautiful experience where learning, creativity, and the natural environment came together 💚🍃

As we welcome 2026 we say goodbye to the skatepark, which was our home for 2025.

It’s not an easy farewell.

When we arrived, we had big plans for development, it was overgrown, derelict and unused; we were promised years on the lease. On one side, there was only a woodcutter, and behind us, only jungle.

We breathed life into it together, filling it with learning, adventure, joy and laughter.

But circumstances changed, we were unable to extend the lease, and it’s time to move on.

Finding the right space in Kuta isn’t simple or easy, especially for a non-profit school like ours.

Just when we considered giving up, our ever amazing parents rallied together and convinced us that Kuta still needs what we bring. Even more humbling was the fantastic local community in Ujung Daya, which welcomed us with open arms and offered space for Wonder to continue to grow.

What will never change is what matters most: our amazing students, nurturing qualified staff, supportive families, and a strong sense of community.

We are taking this as a sign to double down on our Vision and Mission, to remain authentic, stay true to our morals and serve the community.

This is what Wonder is meant to be, putting people before profit, ethics before personal gain and as always, students and community front and centre.

We are excited for what comes next.

We are the school!