Summerhill School

**Summerhill School** is an independent British boarding school which was founded in 1921 by A.S. Neill (Alexander Sutherland Neill). He believed the school should fit the child, not the other way around.

Summerhill is run as a democratic community. Decisions are made in school meetings, which anyone, staff or pupil, may attend, and at which everyone has an equal vote. These meetings serve as both a legislative and judicial body. Summerhill is the oldest "children's democracy" in the world. It is probably the most famous alternative or 'free' school.

Members of the community are free to do as they please, so long as their actions do not cause any harm to others, according to Neill's principle "Freedom, not Licence". This extends to the freedom for pupils to choose which lessons, if any, they attend.

The school is not large. It varies 6080 boys and girls with ages ranging from 5 to 17. The school is now owned by Zoë Readhead, the daughter of A.S. Neill.

## Does it work?

Apparently it does. The most recent OFSTED inspection of the school reported:
- "Evaluation of the school:
- Summerhill School provides a good quality of education. It meets all the regulatory requirements for independent schools, which is an improvement from the last inspection. All the points for development outlined in the previous report have been addressed. The school meets its aims very successfully. Strengths of the school include outstanding pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and outstanding promotion of pupils’ welfare health and safety, including effective safeguarding procedures. Pupils’ behaviour is outstanding and they make good progress. The curriculum and teaching and assessment are good. The national minimum standards for boarding schools are met and overall effectiveness for the boarding experience is outstanding". OFSTED: Summerhill School, 2011. http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/124870

The school did have trouble with OFSTED in the past:
- "In March 2000, after a damning report from an OfSTED (Office for Standards in Education) inspection in March 1999, which demanded changes to the Summerhill philosophy, the school won an historic legal battle against the DfEE (Department for Education and Employment) when it defended the rights and voices of its children at an Independent Schools Tribunal". (School website)

## Fees

Annual fees are significantly less than most independent schools:
- Day pupils £3,735–£8,931
- Boarders £8,568–£14,889

### Books by A.S. Neill

- _A Dominie's Log_. Herbert Jenkins, 1916; Hart, 1975
- _A Dominie in Doubt_. Herbert Jenkins, 1921; Hart, 1975
- _A Dominie Abroad_. Herbert Jenkins, 1923
- _The Problem Child_. Herbert Jenkins, 1926; McBride, 1928
- _The Problem Parent_. Herbert Jenkins, 1932
- _That Dreadful School_. Herbert Jenkins, 1937
- _Hearts not Heads in the School_. Herbert Jenkins, 1945
- _The Problem Family_. Herbert Jenkins, 1949; Hermitage Press, 1949
- _The Free Child_. Herbert Jenkins, 1953
- _Summerhill_. Gollancz, 1962; Penguin, 1968; Hart 1960
- _Freedon not License!_ Hart 1966
- _Talking of Summerhill_. Gollancz, 1967
- _Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! A personal view of ninety years_. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973; Quartet, 1977. New York: Hart. ISBN 978-0-671-81300-0

### Other authors

- _Summerhill, a loving World_. Photographs by Herb Snitzer, Macmillan, 1964
- _Neill & Summerhill, a man and his work_. A pictorial study by John Walmsley, Penguin Education, 1969
- _Inside Summerhill_. Photographs by Joshua Popenoe, Hart, 1969
- _Summerhill: For and Against: assessments of A.S. Neill_. Harold Hart (ed). Hart, 1970; Angus & Robertson, 1973 (includes essays by Bruno Bettleheim, John Holt, Sylvia Ashton- Warner, Paul Goodman, Fred Hechinger, Erich Fromm).
- _Summerhill Diary_. Bjarne Segefjord, Gollancz, 1971
- _Fifty Years of Freedom: A.S. Neill and the evolution of the Summerhill idea_. Ray Hemmings, Allen & Unwin 1972
- _Record of a Friendship: the correspondence of Wilhelm Reich and A.S. Neill_. Beverley R. Placzek (ed) Gollancz, 1981.
- _All the best, Neill, letters from Summerhill_. Jonathan Croall (ed) Andre Deutsch 1983.
- _Neill of Summerhill, the permanent rebel_. Jonathan Croall, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.
- _The new Summerhill_. Albert Lamb (ed) Penguin Education, 1992.
- _Real Education, Varieties of Freedom_. David Gribble, Lib Ed, 1998.
- _Summerhill and A.S.Neill_. Mark Vaughan (ed) Open University Press 2006. Contributions from Zoë Readhead and Ian Stronach. Introduction by Tim Brighouse.
- _After Summerhill: what happened to the pupils of Britain's most radical school?_ Hussein Lucas 2011  Herbert Adler

## Infobox (uk school)

- **name**: Summerhill School
- **image**: SummerhillSchool.jpg
- **size**: 300px
- **latitude**: 52.211222
- **longitude**: 1.572639
- **established**: 1921
- **type**: Independent Boarding School
- **head label**: Principal
- **head**: Zoë Neill Readhead
- **founder**: A.S. Neill
- **street**: Westward Ho
- **city**: Leiston
- **county**: Suffolk
- **ofsted**: yes
- **urn**: 124870
- **staff**: approx 10 teaching, 5 support
- **enrollment**: 78 students
- **gender**: Co-educational
- **lower age**: 5
- **upper age**: 18
- **publication**: The Orange Peel Magazine
- **website**: http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk