Szkoła twoich marzeń

School rules – O.K. you mustn’t smoke or wear make-up. You must do your homework on time. You mustn’t fight in the playground. Even if you like school, it seems that someone is always telling you what to do. This is why a lot of children don’t like school. People learn better and when they have more choice in what they learn and how they learn.

At the White Lion Street Free School, people believe that school should teach a child to think for himself or herself. After all, when you leave school you have to make important decisions by yourself.

There is no punishment for missing school. But many kids spend more time here than other children in ordinary schools. This school is open at evenings and some weekends. The kids complain if holidays last longer than two weeks.
There are no compulsory lessons. Each child has one adult who follows his progress through the school. Together they decide what they need to learn next, and the child does this in their own time.

The children agree, even if they don’t like it, that everyone needs to read and write and use numbers. Every morning is for these ‘’basic skills’’.
A lot happens outside of school. They believe you can’t learn everything in one building. They visit local factories, markets, shops, fire and police stations. They talk to people about their jobs, ask strikers why they are on strike, they visit exhibitions, go horse riding, make trips and go camping. Special subjects like photography, metalwork, pottery etc. are organised by working adults.
It’s not a very big school – only 50 kids, between the age of 3 and 17 – or a rich school. There are very few Free Schools in England.