SUMMERHILL SCHOOL |
THE LEARNING COMPANYwith Professor John G. Burgoyne |
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| Some
readers may know of AS Neill's imaginative democratic school in Suffolk.
Since Neill's death the school has been run by his wife and then by his
daughter Zoë. After 78 years the school continues to run successfully.
Until this year the school had always passed Government inspections, often attracting glowing praise for its innovative work. However this year Ofsted decided, following another inspection, that the school was to be threatened with closure. This despite the high degree of satisfaction from parents and children and the fact that the school gets better than average GCSE results. Given that Summerhill's principles are close to those of SML, Ian Cunningham decided to attend a conference at the school in July and subsequently agreed with the school to chair an alternative inspection team. This team has now been constituted as a 'Commission of Inquiry into Summerhill School'. The commission has been joined by an impressive team of people including head teachers, university professors and people from the organisational world. The commission will carry out an independent inspection in keeping with the philosophy of the school and present its report to the school and to the Department for Education and Employment. The school is appealing against the threat of closure and the appeal is due to be heard in February, so the inquiry team will aim to get its report finished in time for the appeal committee to receive it. If you would like to keep in touch with developments, please contact Ian Cunningham. |
Fifteen
CSML network members and invited guests from as far away as Finland enjoyed
a participative afternoon with John Burgoyne, as guests of NOP in Blackfriars. John is Professor of Management Learning and Head of the Department of Learning at Lancaster University Management School, a visiting Professor at other universities and business schools, as well as working with several large national and multi national organisations. He was a founder member of 'The Learning Company' project with Mike Pedler and Tom Boydell. John explained the basic ideas behind the Learning Company concept, defining such a company as "An organisation that develops itself and its context in a process reciprocally linked to the development of its members and stakeholders". He explained its advantages, how it works, what makes it happen, and why it is relevant for today, giving examples that many of us could identify with. It was easy to see how self managed learning can help to produce A Learning Company. After talking through the differing stages of Career and Development Management in organisations that support The Learning Company, John moved on to critically assess the first ten years. He identified three contemporary challenges;
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