Documentary

Summerhill at 70

An immersive look at the free-range children who take charge of their lives at the highly influential experimental school. An insight into the unorthodox Suffolk boarding school where lessons are optional, swearing is common, and it's the pupils who decide the rules. Summerhill, the first and last bastion of totally permissive, anti-authoritarian, free education, has been going strong for over seven decades. This program from 1992 shows how Summerhill children, left entirely to their own devices, behave; it looks at whether they spurn or take advantage of the academic education offered; whether a tribunal can be effective when the vote of a five-year-old carries as much weight as that of the headmistress.