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Summerhill School No. 25 October 2018 How excited are we all about the upcoming One Hundred Years of Summerhill? SO excited! 2021 will be a year of local, national and international celebration of A.S. Neill’s educational philosophy and one hundred years of Summerhill School. What an achievement! That daydreamer of a Scotsman with his crazy ideas about education, reviled by the popular press, misunderstood and misrepresented at every turn, this little ‘experiment’ now comes of age to truly show that freedom for children works and to bring to the 21st century many important lessons about education and emotional growth. It could not come to the fore at a better time in history. So, this will be an opportunity for all of us to celebrate the inspirations A.S. Neill gave us as a child, parent, student, teacher, educator, school, university or business. First of all, we are kicking off the celebrations with a residential weekend at Summerhill in August 2019. The Summerhill Experience For the first time ever, we are inviting people to spend a weekend with us and really learn how Summerhill works – How do we do Safeguarding Children? How do we prepare for school inspections? What exams do we offer? How do our teachers approach their roles? How do the pupils feel about their own roles and lives in the school and afterwards? It will include A.S. Neill’s founding principles, the famous Self-Government Meetings, policies, paperwork, teaching and a chance to talk to adults and pupils. It is also a chance to just hang out in this unique historic environment and chill! Profits will go to the building of the new A.S. Neill Centre that we are planning on the school grounds. This event will be in the school holiday time and it is designed for adults. Further information will be displayed on our website and Facebook pages. To express interest in attending contact the 100th Birthday email: [email protected] This brings us neatly to the new A.S. Neill Centre at Summerhill. We are already in the planning stage of our new enterprise to celebrate one hundred years of Summerhill and to pay respect to the founder A.S. Neill. We feel there is a real need for an archive and discussion/conference room alongside an area for research. By taking the pressure off the actual school itself, we will be able to offer more visiting days as well as other things without it impacting on the school community. Although we are very happy to have visitors, it can be difficult and can infringe on school life somewhat. For a number of years now we have not felt able to offer internships for this reason, but the new centre should help to meet this need. Other possible ideas for the centenary have been an Arts Festival, a celebration party in London, perhaps a New Year’s Eve party at Summerhill as the year turns to 2021 – maybe linking up over the internet with other schools or groups of people worldwide, a residential weekend for friends of Summerhill to celebrate in August 2021 and, of course, the next Summerhill School pupils’ reunion... these are just very early thoughts and suggestions. If anybody has any ideas, do please get in touch – [email protected] We really want everyone to participate in celebrating Summerhill’s 100th! Some ways you could get involved with the 100th Birthday celebrations… Send us a 100-second video to be shared worldwide, telling us how A.S. Neill inspired you and/or affected your life? Tell us how you intend to celebrate in 2021? We look forward to receiving your ideas and photos! Tell us what Summerhill has meant to Newsletter readers and what it still means. Tell us how being associated with Summerhill has impacted upon your life. Get creative with your ideas... Some ways you could get involved with the A.S. Neill Centre… We are really excited to announce that fundraising for the A.S. Neill Centre has already begun. You could support us with a personal donation or you could organise your own celebration and fundraising event. All contributions will be acknowledged. Please send your donations to the A.S. Neill Summerhill Trust and clearly state that your contribution is to fund the building of the Centre. 2 If you want to get involved in any way please contact us at: [email protected] Summerhill continues to thrive this year – with so much wonderful sunshine it would be hard not to. We have more little children than we have had for a very long time and it is an absolute delight! Play has been top of the agenda during this past summer. Many of the little ones were day pupils, coming in from nine to five but already a number of them are asking to board or at least start weekly boarding. Now, that the new academic year has started we are looking towards our next school inspection, not that we do anything different for this, but we have to make sure that all our paperwork is up-to-date and that we have a space prepared for the visit. We do not get more than 48 hours notice. Hot-off-the-press the Head of Ofsted has just said that exam results will not be part of inspections from now on – Hmmmm... Let us wait and see… Just a small bit of Summerhill trivia. Two people in Chile met at university when studying education, and they say that as they were reading and discussing Neill’s book, “Summerhill: a radical approach to child rearing” they got to know one another very well and without even noticing they fell in love with each other. By now, they have been together for 8 years and they say that Summerhill brought them together… Aaaah, so sweet! We wish them every happiness. So, I hope that you enjoy this issue, kindly made by our team at Summerhill headed by Stephen and Szilvia. Very Best to you all, Zoë 3 As an important part of our celebrations we have commissioned two logos, designed by Sam Horwood. The logos will be used on all our paperwork as we prepare to tell the World of our 100th Birthday. We really hope that they will become a familiar part of your life and that you will smile broadly when you see them. We feel that Sam has captured Neill’s character beautifully. Permission to use either of the logos will be granted to anyone/any group organising an event to celebrate the Summerhill Centenary. Please contact the School Office for details. The early talks we had about how we might celebrate the Summerhill Centenary led us to consider the literature which is currently available about the school. With the intention of promoting and explaining the Summerhill message, in some detail, we have created a stunning volume which we believe captures the very essence of the School community. We believe that it will become essential reading for anyone interested in how our school is organised on a day to day basis and the way in which it continues to offer ‘a childhood of space and freedom’, in our over-busy 21st century. The 68-page book traces the beginnings of Neill’s thinking through the School’s early years with Neill and then Ena at the helm through to the present day. The book explains in text, written by Zoë, and beautiful photographs from a range of photographers, how relevant and contemporary Summerhill continues to be today. The books will be officially launched on Neill’s 135th Birthday , on 17th October 2018. Information on how and where you can purchase this book, including the price, will be placed on the Summerhill Centenary page on the School’s website very soon. [This is recommended reading, don’t miss the opportunity to purchase one of these limited edition books.] - by the 100th Birthday Working Team 4 The latest member to join The A.S. Neill Summerhill Trust is Neill Readhead, a grandson of our founder and the youngest of Zoë and Tony's four children. Hi Everyone, It's nice to have this opportunity to write for this Newsletter. I'm really pleased to have been asked to become a member of the A.S. Neill Summerhill Trust. I spent all of my childhood in and around Summerhill and I still have dreams of being there... being in the Carriages, being a Carriage Kid and spending time with friends. I left in 2004, and since then I have worked on the family farm with Tony and Amy and I’m still closely involved in the school. I'm very proud that my daughter has now started her journey at Summerhill, which is another reason for me to be involved in the Trust. My hope is that one day my grandchildren will have a Summerhill Childhood. I'll sign off in the tradition set by my grandfather, All the best, Neill Photo by Stephen Southgate, 2018 A portrait photo of Leila Berg by our friend John Walmsley has recently been added to the collection at The National Portrait Gallery in London. It joins other works by John including one of Neill. The portrait of Leila is not on permanent display but can be seen by request, if an appointment is made with the gallery. John and Leila became friends during the production of the book 'Neill and Summerhill: a man and his work', for which John took the photographs and Leila wrote the text.
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