Ask the children! Summerhill pupils are not forced to be here – they choose to be. Old-Summerhill pupils all agree that being away from home was a really positive and important thing for them.

Summerhill is nothing like a “boarding school” in the traditional sense. It is somewhere between tribe and family, a sociable, child-centred environment where the adults are friends and where you can play all day if you want to. It is an enrichment of family life, something extra that you can’t get at home – plus lots of brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and friends.

Some people say they will miss their children’s childhood if they send them to Summerhill. My answer is that childhood is for the child, not for the parents. It can take courage to give your children the independence they need, especially if this means they will leave home.

But Summerhill parents will agree that you don’t “lose” your child, you gain a special friendship with them that lasts a lifetime. And, of course, we have roughly four months holiday each year when parents and children can spend time together unfettered by the ‘school run’, home work or any of the other daily pressures faced by those at conventional schools.