Highly praised in our Independent Schools Inspectorate Report (ISI), 2023
“At the heart of the school’s ethos is a determination to promote pupils’ wellbeing by defending their right to make their own choices and grow at their own pace. In doing so, they ensure that pupils acquire the skills to make informed decisions about the paths they want to follow, both as learners and as members of the community.”
A.S. Neill Summerhill School
A better way to educate
A.S. Neill founder of Summerhill, set out to make a school that would fit the child rather than forcing pupils to do what parents and educators thought might be best for them.
Summerhill is as unlike a conventional school as it could possibly be. Founded one hundred years ago to provide a space where children can grow in a ‘free-range’ environment.
‘Summerhill is a real place, not a utopia. Living in a community of around one hundred people is not always easy. Everybody is learning about themselves, and on a bleak January day, with the east wind blowing things are sometimes not wonderful! But Summerhill in summer time is lush, green and not unlike never-never land. It is more of a family or a tribe than a school — full of companionship, laughter and real feelings. For many Summerhill pupils it becomes the most meaningful experience in their lives.’
—Zoë Readhead, Principal of Summerhill
‘Summerhill is a happy place to live… If we can look closely at what Summerhill does and how it does it, then perhaps we can transfer some of what it offers into our homes, into our parenting.’
— Zoë Neill Readhead.
A.S.Neill Summerhill CIC is a newly formed, Non profit, community interest company established alongside Summerhill School itself and the upcoming A.S.Neill Archive and Research Centre. It has been set up to promote children’s rights, well-being, freedom, equality, individuality, free play, self-direction, democracy, community and to provide benefit to children, practitioners, parents and carers, higher education students, academics, researchers or other individuals, institutions and organisations seeking to promote these values locally, across the UK and worldwide.
If you are interested in enrolling your child, call the office and request information and to find out the days set aside for Visitors and Prospective Parents.
