.............. Facsimile web page

These people have had nearly 50,000 visitors to their new website since March, 1999. They've been under terrific stress. Their website is very sweet - and it takes a long time to load up completely, because the graphics are big and elaborate. But it's worth it, so hang in with it! They even have a chat room!

Summerhill School is unique. It is a progressive, co-educational, residential school, founded by A. S. Neill in 1921; in his own words, it is a `free school'. This does not mean that it is state funded. The freedom Neill was referring to was the personal freedom of the children in his charge. Summerhill is first and foremost a place where children can be free.

There are two features of the school which visitors usually single out as being particularly unusual. The first is that all lessons are optional. A school which compelled its pupils to go to lessons would be, at best, a travesty of freedom.

Many people suppose that no children would ever go to lessons if they were not forced to. How miserable their own school experience must have been, if lessons were so unpleasant as to inculcate this belief! At Summerhill, it is rare for a child to attend no lessons at all - at least, after the initial shock of freedom has worn off. But when it does happen, no pressure is applied to the child to start going to lessons.

The second particularly unusual feature of the school is the weekly Meeting, at which the school Laws are made or changed. These laws are the rules of the school, and the Meeting is attended by all members of the school. Changes to the Laws are made by democratic agreement; pupils and staff alike have exactly one vote each.

These two features are certainly central to the school, but they fail in themselves to capture its essential nature. Needless to say, epithets like `the school where kids do what they like' similarly miss their mark. What they omit to say is that Summerhill is a community. It is a community most of whose 80-odd members are children, so teaching is a part of it; but it is not the most important part. The most important part is building and maintaining an environment where members of the community can co-exist in harmony and in freedom.

Thus, Summerhill is the oldest children's democracy in the world which is still thriving, and has been recognised worldwide as an inspiring educational model.

Closing Summerhill denies parents the right to choose their child's education. For 78 years, Summerhill has represented a valid educational option that has contributed to diversity in educational practice.

AND, they won their battle against closure of the school! BUT ... it was expensive! If you have followed the school's struggle, you will be aware that the school spent thousands on its fight. It did this partly with money raised by supporters from around the world. It needed the money to pay for a legal team that could beat the Government. They did.

Click here to read about Summerhill's great court battle and their victory!

The school has spent a lot of its own money on this fight, that it was determined to win. Money that would have been used to continue with its development plan - a plan ignored by the Inspectors, and one that has been dogged by money problems. If you would like to be a part of Summerhill's survival and growth, you may write Zoë at zoe@summerhillschool.co.uk OR you may send in a cheque directly to their bank account in Leiston:

Cheques to be made payable to:	S.A.V.E. Summerhill
Bank account details:	                  c/o Barclays Bank
Address:            	                            19 Main Street, Leiston
                                                                 Suffolk, IP16 4EP
Branch sort code: 20-98-07
Account No:	 2 000 8 00 1

 Mailing address:

SUMMERHILL SCHOOL
WESTWARD HO
LEISTON
SUFFOLK 1P16 4HY

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