SUMMERHILL FESTIVAL OF CHILDHOOD 5-10 August 2022

The world’s Oldest Continuous Democratic School Turns 100! (and 1!!) Suffolk, England, UK. 5-10th August 2022.
(και 1!!!) Suffolk, Αγγλία, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο. 5-10 Αυγούστου 2022.

This Festival will be a community and family event for those interested in alternatives to the mainstream education system with its emphasis on test scores and exam results and its associated impact on the well-being and mental health of children and young people.
The Festival will celebrate 100 years of Summerhill School and the inspiration that its founder A.S.Neill has given the world. The event will focus on childhood itself, on children’s rights, freedom of the individual, responsibility to community and free play. It will explore how children’s innate creativity, curiosity and desire to collaborate and communicate has been suppressed by coercive anxiety inducing education systems. It will consider in depth how important it is for the future of our species and our planet that this process is reversed. There will be many children at the event to show us what can be done!
What to expect? There will be talks by inspirational education pioneers, researchers and innovators, some of who are already working for change in mainstream education systems in several countries. There will be DJs, comedy, bands, collaborative art projects and creative activities for the young and young at heart.
There will be something for everyone and there will be a lot of fun with the serious purpose of facilitating the rediscovery of the potential of childhood.
Plans are in place to welcome several thousand British and international families, educators and innovators to the festival at Peakhill Farm, Theberton, Suffolk, where they can reminisce, network, and share ideas, experiences and practices celebrating childhood.
Το Summerhill School είναι διεθνώς γνωστό για την προώθηση της συναισθηματικής ειλικρίνειας ως απαραίτητη προϋπόθεση για την κοινωνική συναισθηματική ανάπτυξη και ένα πιο ανθρώπινο κόσμο. Υποστηρίζει την αυτοδιαχειριζόμενη μάθηση σε ένα δημοκρατικό και κοινωνικό περιβάλλον. Θα υπάρξουν ομιλίες από εμπνευσμένους πρωτοπόρους της εκπαίδευσης, ερευνητές και καινοτόμοι, ορισμένοι από τους οποίους εργάζονται ήδη για την αλλαγή στην κυρίαρχη εκπαιδευτικά συστήματα σε διάφορες χώρες. Θα υπάρχουν DJs, κωμωδίες, συγκροτήματα, συνεργατικά έργα τέχνης και δημιουργικές δραστηριότητες για τους νέους και τις νέες.
There will be something for everyone and there will be a lot of fun with the serious purpose of facilitating the rediscovery of the potential of childhood.
Plans are in place to welcome several thousand British and international families, educators and innovators to the festival at Peakhill Farm, Theberton, Suffolk, where they can reminisce, network, and share ideas, experiences and practices celebrating childhood.
Summerhill School is internationally renowned for its promotion of emotional sincerity as an essential condition for social emotional development and a more humane world. It supports self-managed learning in a democratic and rights respecting context. A.S. Neill founded the school in 1921 in Dresden, Germany as part of the international Neue Schule. By 1923, Neill had moved to the town of Lyme Regis in the south of England, to a house called Summerhill. In 1927, Neill moved the school to the present site at Leiston, Suffolk, taking the name of Summerhill with him. During his lifetime, Neill published several books about life and work at Summerhill including “Summerhill – A Radical Approach to Education” (1962). It became an instant bestseller and a classic volume on education for an entire generation.
For many Summerhill pupils it becomes the most meaningful experience in their lives.

Zoë Neill Readhead, Principal, Summerhill.

http://www.summerhillfestival.com/