Kilquhanity School was one of several free school

Democratic education

Democratic education is a theory of learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy...

s to have been established in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in the twentieth century. Others include Sands School

Sands School

Sands School is a democratic school in Ashburton, Devon in England- History :Sands School was started in 1987 by a group of students and teachers from the recently closed Dartington Hall School. Starting in the kitchen of a parent's house, the school quickly established its own philosophy, building...

 in Devon, Summerhill

Summerhill School

Summerhill School is an independent British boarding school that was founded in 1921 by Alexander Sutherland Neill with the belief that the school should be made to fit the child, rather than the other way around...

 in Suffolk and Kirkdale School

Kirkdale School

Kirkdale School was a small, independent free school located at 186 Kirkdale Road, Sydenham, London, England. During the entirety of the school's existence it was run as a parent/teacher co-operative....

 in London.

The school was founded by John Aitkenhead

John Aitkenhead

John Marchbanks Aitkenhead was a Scottish teacher and co-founder of Kilquhanity School....

 (1910-1998) and his wife Morag in 1940. It was closed in 1997. It was located near Castle Douglas

Castle Douglas

Castle Douglas , a town in the south of Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway, lies in the eastern part of Galloway known as the Stewartry, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet.-History:...

 in Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfries and Galloway is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It was one of the nine administrative 'regions' of mainland Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government etc. Act 1973...

. The school was reopened in 2009 by head teacher and former pupil Andrew Pyle, with the assistance of a Japanese educational organisation Kinokuni Children's Village Schools (headed by Shinichiro Hori). Initially, the school is to have 15 places.

Philosophy

The philosophy of Kilquhanity was heavily influenced by the writing and ideas of A. S. Neill

A. S. Neill

Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish progressive educator, author and founder of Summerhill school, which remains open and continues to follow his educational philosophy to this day...

, who founded Summerhill School, where Aitkenhead had worked ; essentially that children learn best with freedom from coercion ("free-range").

Further reading

• The Education Revolution #32 Spring/Summer 2001 (the magazine of the Alternative Education Resource Organization).
• Various authors. Summerhill: For and Against, a collection of essays, arguing both in favour and against Summerhill's (and Kilquhanity's) approach.
• A.S. Neill. Summerhill. A book about the school and its philosophy, by the school's founder.

External links

• Official web site
• Alternative school to reopen BBC News channel, March 23, 2009
• Unique school re-opens (Dumfries and Galloway Standard article, March 25, 2009)