Summerhill School is an independent democratic, self-governing boarding school for boys and girls aged from five to 17 years. The aims and philosophy of the school are based on those of A S Neill who founded the school in 1921. The Principal and proprietor of the school is the founder’s daughter. The aims of the school are: to provide choices and opportunities that allow children to develop at their own pace and to follow their own interests to allow children to be free from compulsory or imposed assessment, allowing them to develop their own goals and sense of achievement to allow children to be completely free to play as much as they like to allow children to experience the full range of feelings free from judgement and intervention of an adult to allow children to live in a community that supports them and that they are responsible for in which they have the freedom to be themselves, and have the power to change community life, through the democratic process. The school is registered for 90 pupils. At the time of the inspection there were 66 on roll, of which 58 were borders and eight were day pupils. The school is located in the village of Leiston in Suffolk. Most of the pupils come from a wide range of international backgrounds and a few of them are at an early stage of learning English. There are no pupils with a statement of special educational needs and a very small number of pupils have been identified as having special educational needs 1 www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/32/contents. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/18/contents. 3 www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents. 4 www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/a00192112/boarding-schools. 2 Independent school standard inspection report 3 and/or disabilities. The educational provision of the school and the boarding provision were both last inspected in November 2007.