Summerhill School

Summer Hill school, is a boarding school for girls and boys aged from five to seventeen years old. It is located in the village of Leiston in Suffolk.  This boarding school is an independent democratic, self-governing boarding school. The school was founded in 1921 by A S Neil. It is a mixed community that consists of adults and children who all live together, throughout the school there are between 65 and 75 children and 12 full time staff. The school has 11 acres of fields and wood, meaning there is plenty of uncultivated areas to play. (Ofsted, 2007)

According to the Summer Hill website, Summer hill is not a school for children who misbehave. The schools ability allows children to experience natural social, emotional and intellectual growth it has an outstanding effect on the child’s positive personal development and their self-esteem. The timetable allows the children to make choices of how their day would like to be structured, they are aware of what’s available and they are allowed to decided how to use their own time, such as formal or informal learning, taking part in school committees, playing, socialising. Although there are rules within the school that are set such as watching TV or playing screen games during lesson time. Non-compulsory lessons ensure that the children are motivated to learn and progress at their own pace and learn for their own reasons.  The school firmly express that important learning takes place outside the classroom; play is an important freedom at summer hill.  There is no limit on independent learning in Summer Hill School the children are allowed to do something as many times as they want.

The Staff plan activities that suits the interest of every individual pupil, match their needs and also abilities. The result of this is that all pupils develop a love of learning and interest in the world. The teachers are aware of the preferred learning style of each child also including their interests, therefore the children make excellent progress in the lessons and other activities they choose to do. The children are able to attend classes to access resources and materials to start individual projects and activities. Children develop a close relationship with the staff,  since the classrooms are small the teacher has a big influence on the children.(Summerhill school, no date)

The aims of the school are to allow children to develop their sense of achievement and goals, allowing them to be free from imposed or compulsory assessment. Allowing children to experience feelings free from an intervention of an adult and judgement. Children to play as much as they like . For the child to learn and develop at their own pace and follow their own interests. For the children to have to power to change community life, through the democratic process, and for them to live in a community that supports them and experiencing the responsibility for in which they have the freedom to be themselves.

Summer Hill school is an effective school, whilst being at summer hill school children gain more understanding, compassion, sensitivity, creativity, assertiveness, individuality, self-motivation, humour comment sense, including self-esteem, integrity, tolerance and fairness.

Reference List

• Imagine a School....Summerhill(Oct 9,2008) Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdwjvxcJHTA
• Ofsted: SummerhillSchool,independent school, inspection report (2007)
• Summerhillschool, About Summerhill. www.summerhillschool.co.uk (Accessed: 24^th November 2014)