Summerhill School

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Summerhill School" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (February 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Summerhill School
Address
Westward Ho Leiston , Suffolk , IP16 4HY England
Coordinates	52°12′40″N 1°34′22″E / 52.211222°N 1.572639°E / 52.211222; 1.572639
Information
Type	Independent day and boarding school
Established	1921
Founder	Alexander Sutherland Neill
Local authority	Suffolk
Department for Education URN	124870 Tables
Ofsted	Reports
Principal	Zoë Readhead
Staff	Approx. 10 teaching, 5 support
Gender	Coeducational
Age	6 to 18
Enrolment	78 pupils
Houses	San, Cottage, House, Shack, Carriage
Publication	The Orange Peel Magazine
Website	www.summerhillschool.co.uk

Summerhill School is an independent (i.e. fee-charging) day and boarding school in Leiston, Suffolk, England. It was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other way around. It is run as a democratic community and is considered a Democratic School; the running of the school is conducted in the 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. 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. It is an example of both democratic education and alternative education.