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When it opened 90 years ago and volunteered teaching children from the rules. A radical alternative to conventional training - or anarchy? Former pupils look back

Earlier this month, seven generations of past and present students gathered for the 90th Birthday of Summer Hill, to celebrate our progressive, controversial alma mater. The school was, in a rambling Victorian house in Leiston, Suffolk set of AS Neill, a teacher, who detested the strict discipline that he expects that to impose them on students, that he came up with a radically different kind of training was - to allow children so much freedom as they pleased.

For me, it was also a celebration of my grandmother 's legacy, for in August 1921 Lilian Neustatt cofounder Summerhill. The origin was an invitation to tea. Lilian had my dad on the co-ed King Alfred School in Hampstead, where Neill was a teacher sent. She invited him into her house and was fascinated by the lanky Scot 's dream of a school where students could make their own rules.

My grandmother had no formal background in teaching, but she was well trained and qualified linguists and musicians, and together she and Neill decided to start Summerhill. In 1927 she divorced my grandfather and Neill 's wife was (she was always known as Mrs Lin Lindesay from their middle family name). She died when I was born, but we used to visit and Summerhill in 1954, at the age of 11 I decided to go.

I was homesick at first shy, and, but I knew that Summerhill was something special, and I wanted to stay. So I was asked one of the "do-as-yer-like-children" as the local town called us to anarchy, the need in our brick walls of the rule.

Sometimes it was. I remember Angus Dudgeon, who in his youth, just arrived after getting kicked out of Harrow. Gobsmacked by the freedom of running, screaming about it, talk "inappropriate" to the girl and finally breaking 23 windows over two days. When he picked up a stone to another break, Neill, spotting him, took one and broke the 24th Window before Angus could. Angus did not break more windows, soothes and became one of the cutest members of the community. He also went on to produce records for Pink Floyd.

Our colleagues in the Orthodox schools could not believe we would prefer to take the lessons if we did not to 't have. But like many who were discovered after a lot of time scrambling to sit in the big book, caves or buildings in a field full of wildflowers reading quietly formal learning was surprisingly pleasant. Nevertheless, I have a book threw me for talking in class by our inspirational English teacher, an ex-army man. "You don 't have to come," he said, "but when you do this, you must not spoil it for others."

The doctrine was incomplete. If the teachers had good knowledge and used in accordance with Summerhill 's philosophy, their teachings were wonderful. Ulla - we called teachers by their first names to - sewing training combined with teaching their native language German. I went to make my own clothes from A-level German and pass with distinction. But the wages were low and Summerhill wasn 't any teacher' s dream school, so that some who were openly hired didn 't have a clue.

What we got was a valuable education in democracy. In weekly meetings of the school, of whom wanted to come took part, questions were raised - a child destroy property, or a teacher to speak in a way someone as offensive - and all had the same vote on the appropriate punishment. These lose your puddings for a day, compared to Neill 's expeditions to the forbidden sea manifold.

Inevitably there were questions about lewd girls and boys live in such a boundless area. News Of The World reporter would visit and give us a pound to place the beans about the lurid sex underage, they thought wrong spill. Tabloids reported employee red-handed on the front lawn. It wasn 'ta front lawn.

In its 90 years has fluctuated Summerhill sometimes to the brink of survival, with low pupil numbers, sensationalist documentaries painting a distorted picture of cruelty and anarchy, and Blair 's Labour government in 2000 tried to close it. Zoe Redhead, Neill 's daughter, who now runs the school, fought and won the court case against them.

So, back to the celebrations, I should be proud of what has made my grandmother? To this day, even simple mathematics defeats me, but I'm not the dire predictions of scientists that this "utopian 'school would not leave us all declared fit into the outside world had met. Instead, I 've had a fulfilling career and overwhelming, the thing is Summerhill gave me confidence and joy in the moment.

Ishbel McWhirter, 84

An artist, McWhirter lives in Wales with her partner Reg She has two children from a previous marriage.

Ishbel McWhirter 's mother read that Dreadful School, Neill' s book on Summerhill, in a meeting and sent her daughter at the age of 12 Ishbel loved it immediately. 'Neill filled the school with his positivism and humor, and Ms. Lin was very cultured and warm to all students. There were few rules, but he warned us, if we would be shocked out of school people swore. We did not 't want to let our school down, so we were very careful. "

A number of pupils, including McWhirter, wanted to learn more than is on offer, but Neill believed in the importance of free time, Summerhill usually made lessons at lunch time. At an extraordinary session, called by the students, it was decided that an additional hour of instruction would be incorporated into the curriculum so that children could be prepared for the School Certificate, a precursor of O-levels. Neill was shocked - he was not trying to create pressure on the exams. 'Neill' s way of learning was instilled paste-up tests originality, which took the form of jokey questions. We should be in the most outrageous and broadly as possible. We thought Neill didn 't have a clue about the choice of teachers. They seemed to be chosen in a bizarre reasons - they read the newspaper or had the right to correct, neuroses ".

But McWhirter happy with Robin Bond, a young art teacher, a great interest in their work. He showed her the art of Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka, who teach her when she left Summerhill, offered so from the age of 19, McWhirter spent several years under his leadership. Today, there are portraits by Melvyn Bragg, Tom Conti, Lord Scarman, Germaine Greer and Neill in their catalogs. Reflective, she says: "I guess the downside is that I didn \ s. But Summerhill gave me a different kind of confidence, 't trust that I for some people, their education was as good as anybody did \ did have "like myself, and I see now is that a very big deal. "

John Burningham, 75

An illustrator and author of children 's and books for adults, Burningham lives in North London with his wife, the artist Helen Oxenbury . They have three adult children.

John Burningham went to 11 different schools - his father was a merchant, and it moves a lot - before his parents chose Summerhill in 1948. He was 13 and stayed for five 'happy "years.

. "But there was the fact that the school was always very difficult to definitely influenced us with a broad education to a limited number of subjects to offer and the sports facilities were hopeless: the tennis court with weeds in it, too bumpy fields for soccer and so further. I don 't think it was just money, though. I think Neill associated with a public school sports, where you pounded on the freezing morning were performed with raw knees, and competitiveness, the children are not made good on It is very unfortunate. "

The art was a passion from the beginning, and although Burningham went to other lessons, and only French literature stick in my mind. "The people out there thought we 'd find it hard to earn their livelihood, but among my colleagues are professionals and scientists, and artists like me batty."

There was a benign moral education, too. "A couple of us had got hold of the keys to the main food store and for about a term we'd been taking things. One day I was with Neill and he suddenly said, 'Some bugger's stolen the key to the food store. I don't suppose you know where it is?' It was alarming the way he could see through people. No matter what you said, you knew he knew the truth. There was nothing to do but go and get it for him."

Nathalie Gensac, 44

Gensac runs an educational charityTo collect money to help women and children in the Third World. She lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Until she was nine, Nathalie Gensac was home-schooled by her parents while they were travelling the hippy trail to Morocco. "Then they heard about Summerhill and it absolutely fitted their ideas," she says.

Living in a small, interconnected community "means that you take responsibility for your own actions, and that means everything from the clothes you wear, how you treat others. All the decisions can be hard sometimes. Neill 's conclusion that we have freedom, but not if what you've bothered with other "freedom" was.

Gensac went mostly by the hour, but is reminiscent of the science is missing a few sessions, then apologize. "My teacher said," It doesn 't matter, but it' s your loss. "That made me really think." She left Summerhill at age 15 with nine O-levels, including the three science subjects.

Taking A-levels wasn 't really an option in Summerhill, because there weren' t enough teachers to offer a wide enough variety of topics, Gensac went elsewhere. "There were people at the university, which rejected me because I have grown up with no discipline thought One A-level teacher rounded on me when I am with what he said, agreed and called out." I assume you are the child of Summerhill. '\'

Caspar Walsh, 44

Author of a memoir and a novel, Walsh runs creative writing lessons for young people in prison and has a number Charity for young people at risk. He lives in Devon.

"I went on to Summerhill at age six to two years. I climbed trees, invented games and buried it in all the open space. When I was hungry, I 'd go cooking class and make cakes. If I wanted a sword I did woodwork and made one. I was in my element, because I was a kid it would be natural things, while I was fit with my father 's life at home. He was a career criminal and my family life was very disturbing - \, both emotionally and physically. "

Walsh 's chaotic background meant that he relentlessly the limits of Summer Hill' s freedom: .. "I have, bad things once I've set fire to the top of a big teddy bear and threw it out the window"

The final blow came when he broke into a football club after school and took over the business there with candy. He was immediately expelled. "I was devastated. I can see now that I need someone to control and contain me. But the point of Summerhill, was that you learn, had to set their own limits. I would not say 't the school is irresponsible sell me - I had committed a criminal act -. but I think they were extremely hard because of how young I was "

Walsh is one of the few students asked to leave Summer Hill, and his life went steadily downhill after that. His father was sent to prison, and Walsh has been heavily dependent on drugs. But by 21 he was clean. "I recently came across a photo of Neill," he says, "and realized how much I wish I could have remained in Summerhill. His ideas about helping people find their own path by focusing on their side have definitely influenced me. "

Nadia Hartmann, 42

Hartmann is a dentist who lives in Belgium with her husband and two daughters.

Nadia Hartmann 's mother had a very strict upbringing, and they didn' t want the same for her daughter. On the strength of Neill 's autobiography,' Neill! Neill! Orange Peel! "Hartmann was sent to Summerhill in 1975, at the age of five years.

"I had no trouble going so young. My mother died when I was nine years old and Summerhill was like family to me and my brother. It wasn 't much bullying, but with a few friends I've bully a girl . We snow set in her bed, so they think they would pee 'd, and daddy-longlegs in their cooking ingredients. We were brought before the weekly school meeting and there was a lot of disapproval from the other children. We were from ban the pool and go into the city. That was a really big fine and we never again.

"I went to class when I was small, but has reached 10 when I stopped at and I spent a few years to climb trees, swim, knit, play with friends. Then, when I was 13, I decided I wanted to do dentistry and had to learn, and so I resumed teaching. I had to work hard to catch up, but classes at Summerhill are very small, so you can get a lot of individual instruction. I was about 15 and in college had I work even harder. But I 'd had precious years of freedom and after three years of intensive study, I have the same grades as those who have been at the college for 13 years. "

Hartmann and her husband plan to send their own daughters, soon to Summerhill.

Nathan Clutterbuck, 26

A graphic designer, lives in London Clutterbuck.

Nathan Clutterbuck 's parents wanted him and his brother, an alternative education have, so he was sent to Summerhill at the age of four. He stayed until he was 16.

"I was hardly bother with lessons until I was 13 \," he says. "My friends and I would shit in the woods - the creation of caves and castles - or informal team games to play on the road I spent a lot of time in art and woodwork rooms, and also in the theater, we would make up .. plays and then do this for other students. "

But finally he was Clutterbuck 'd had enough of the "kludge" and was ready to buckle down and study. "I don 't remember learning to read and write," he says, "but for most of us it was something we just learned, intuitive. I' m still not a strong reader, But I have a degree in graphic design and now with an up-market travel company develops books and one of the first applications for the iPad work so that it clearly wasn 't too much of a handicap. "

Summerhill, he says, wasn 'ta happy experience for all. "Some kids don 't handle with so much freedom to say and even better with the rules, what they do."

As for him ... "I think Summerhill made myself a diplomat from the age of 12, I was the mediation of disputes between children and trying to understand both sides of an issue I later suspended three times for drinking and smoking pot I loved it there, kicked thus temporarily was poor. My parents gave me a pep talk, I did check the severity of the situation, but much worse was the call that I received from my colleagues warned me that I put the school in jeopardy. I knew she were right. "