A Tale of Two Suffolk Schools
The Royal Hospital School
These scenes are from a 1998 television programme which contrasted life at this traditional boarding school, with its naval ethos, with the free and easy regime at Summerhill School, where children can decide whether or not to attend lessons and uniforms of any description would be an anathema.
Spit and polish are part of daily life for pupils at the Royal Hospital School
The school band plays at Sunday 'Divisions' when pupils parade in naval uniform
Summerhill School
Summerhill pupils vote on school affairs in a contrasting scene from the TV programme. The vote of the bearded teacher (second left) carries no more weight than that of one of the children
Summerhill pupils are free to participate in lessons or sit about chatting as the mood takes them. There are no uniformed parades or spit and polish at this easygoing school founded by radical educationalist A S Neill in the 1920s