UK Sudbury Model Schools?

[Max St John]

Hi there,

Does anyone know of any attempts to set up a Sudbury model school in the UK?

We have Summerhill (which I'm in the process of exploring) and Sands (less Sudbury-esque, I believe) democratic schools, but nothing else that I can find.

I'm curious about why, and if others have tried (and failed) what I/we can learn from this.

Thanks in advance, I'm finding this list a great source of insight and support.

Max

[Vladimiras Lekecinskas]

Hi Max,

I tend to explain it to myself in the following way: the worse situation is on the ground (in state schools) - the stronger is the grassroots pushback, the more free schools and school startup groups you will see. 

In Germany both law and the social system in general (university level education requirements that strongly impacts free schools, for example) seem to be quite rough - and you see larger number of schools and school startups. In the UK it all is much softer partially because schools like Summerhill have made their impact on the state education philosophy through the last 100 years - the system as a whole became much more tolerant to diversity of approaches, more open to humanistic perspective, open to emotional health concerns, social development expectations of the society. Students are expected to know how democracy works first hand, teachers are taught to teach citizenship and democratic participation - and it's hard not to mention democratic education in such context.

Less pressure -> less resistance -> less free/democratic schools! 

Of course it's a bold reduction and the reality is much more complex than that, but UK is still rather liberal in many respects. You see a lot of small signs of free education influence in the UK state schooling system. Of course it won't cut it for purists and professionals, but many parents will compromise. I'm a parent myself, I know that much.

What countries in Europe would legally tolerate unschooling, homeschooling? UK does. What countries are OK with the student taking 0 state exams and wouldn't punish the school or parents in any way for that? Well, I don't think the list is very long.

I've heard many cases about mandatory exams for homeschoolers in Poland, Austria, about completely blocked way for free schools to operate in accordance to their philosophy in many EU countries, if not most. UK seems to be objectively a bit more liberal due to history (private schools had their own way traditionally - strong elites didn't want the state to mess with THEIR children) - and both Summerhill and Sands benefit from that tradition, even though it was formed rather for the sake of places like Eton College - not with free schools in mind for sure. In a sense it's a hack of the state system, if you are familiar with the IT terminology.

Uh, it's getting lengthy, sorry!

NB: I'm obviously biased as I'm a parent of a Summerhill student myself (our son is 12 and we're 5th year with Summerhill), but I think European systems and models and practice are somewhat more suitable for Europe broadly speaking, just maybe? If I'd open a free school - I'd explore local role models, attempts, experiments. I think we have about 500 running free / democratic schools worldwide that are roughly in sync with both SVS and Summerhill philosophies around the world (and if you count in mini-schools with less than 10 children - maybe 2000 or even more!) - there are local examples to learn from, if you search hard enough. 

Here's a link to our list with 432 schools on it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oiy2w-B-xs_3GYBccLWurO64FNyXhgya41KhcoizSbw/edit - maybe you'll find something useful there? It's not in good shape re updates, but could be useful.

Oh and Israel is a place to look at too, they have such a rich body of experience, most democratic education students per capita in the world, hundreds people long waiting lists to enrol into democratic schools, experience transforming state schools into democratic schools + IDEC happens in Hadera school next March (idec2017.org) - that could be another top notch place to find people sharing their experience with starting and running schools. AERO conference in the US is also a very valuable hotspot of diverse resources: educationrevolution.org

I hear SVS model is now going through a renaissance of interest in France (Ramin!), Ireland (Aaron!) and is going through an exciting peak of public visibility that is so great to see. I'm sure you can reach out to them through EUDEC (eudec.org) - and they will share their experience. Yet many new schools choose to not associate themselves with either SVS or Summerhill or any other "branded" model - and learn from everyone! New Lithuanian democratic school went that way, I've heard about new schools in Poland that opt to be neutral and pick best practices from everyone who shares them. I hope all people crazy enough to go on this school starters journey will succeed and their schools will successfully reach maturity stage, go through the first hard 5-10 years..

I'll mention Summerhill Democratics too: http://summerhilldemocratics.net/ as a resource for school starters - with their perspective you could have "best of both worlds", I guess, if you choose to do so. AERO offers "school starters course" taught by one of top experts in the field - Jerry Mintz http://www.educationrevolution.org/store/product/school-starters-course/ and Education Cities http://education-cities.com/en/education-cities-network/ are terrific and very professional. There are people to learn from everywhere!

So, to conclude, while I'd obviously use Sands / Summerhill examples for anything UK just for the sake of those being better adapted to local realities... There's still nothing fundamentally conflicting between SVS and Sands/Summerhill, other great schools around the world - it's usually the same humanistic philosophy vector with somewhat different methodical principles and approaches - but same trust in child's nature, same quest for self-determination and autonomy, same desire to design the school around the child and unlearn the archaic farm/army-like ways that got stuck in education. 

Best luck, sorry for the long text!

Vlad

[Katie Coleman]

Hi Max,

I realise that you wrote this a long while ago but I have just come across it and have been compelled to reply. We are doing exactly that. We are in the process of setting up the UK's very first Sudbury Model school. It is a challenge to say the least but a very exciting. If you are still interested and haven't seen our presence online yet you can follow our journey at http://eastkentsudburyschool.org.uk/ or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EastKentSudbury/ 

Kate 

East Kent Sudbury School

www.Eastkentsudburyschool.org.uk