In August 2008, the then Schools Minister, Andrew Adonis, gave the go-ahead for the privately funded Hereford Waldorf School to reopen as a tax-payer-funded Academy, sponsored by the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship of Great Britain. Accordingly, the Steiner Academy Hereford opened in September 2008. In common with the 132 other Academies opened since the Academies programme was first introduced in 2000, the Academy, which has around 290 pupils aged three to 16 years, now benefits from significant capital investment from central government and is the first school in the UK to offer free Steiner education. This article looks at the process through which the teachers and leadership team in the newly formed Academy begin to adapt to the expectations and demands of the "maintained sector" as regards assessment and accountability, following their search for an assessment culture, authentic to their core values. It explores the potential clash of cultures when a "publicly funded independent school" based on a distinctive educational philosophy begins to interface with state educational culture. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)