Our academic year consists of three terms:

• Autumn term: From the end of September to mid-December
• Spring term: From January to March
• Summer term: From April to late July

We have lovely long holidays of about four weeks in winter and spring, and almost eight weeks over the summer months. Since we are an international community, we tend to have very intense, busy terms without any breaks (i.e. no half-term break), keeping everybody together at the school and so facilitating longer holidays in between terms. This way, people coming from the other side of the world do not need to return as soon as they have managed to get over their jetlag in their home countries but have another few weeks to enjoy spending time with their families. It also means that international students fly only 6 times per year since they do not have to fly home for half-term breaks.

During term time everybody is allowed three weekends off. So, it does not matter whether you are a staff member or a student, you get to leave the school completely three times a term, going away from 3:30pm on a Friday and coming back on Monday morning at the latest.

The most exciting start of term (SOT) is the beginning of the autumn term. By then, we haven’t seen one another for almost two months, and we are ready for a new start. Before the long summer holiday, a number of students take their leave of Summerhill to move onto the next phase of their life-long adventure. These ‘leavers’ tend to be older Summerhillians who used to be Carriage kids i.e. the oldest students who are our strong voices of leadership and help run the school day to day. Their leaving allows the younger generation (the Shack kids) to take their place by becoming Carriage kids. Some students are so excited to start the new academic year that they pack everything two weeks before SOT to be ready when the time comes to leave for school. Some, however, struggle to get their heads around it still being warm and summer-like by the end of September as they plan and pack for the cold autumn and winter months that they will spend in Britain.

Term begins with “arrival day”, which is always a Thursday. Apart from new students, who come in on Friday (except if they were on an international flight), everybody is asked to arrive after noon on the SOT Thursday. Students from the UK or from neighbouring countries usually arrive with their parents by car, whereas international students are usually picked up by staff members from Heathrow airport. A scheduled coach brings students back to Summerhill on the three hour trip from Heathrow to rural Suffolk.

On Friday at 11am, all new students as well as local day students, arrive to join the community. We have lunch and then hold our very first general meeting of the term from 2 pm. As usual, people bring up all sorts of cases, but at the end of this very first meeting, staff members get the chance to introduce themselves. We do this every term regardless of having any new students at school or not. Every staff member introduces himself or herself, and if they offer to teach something that will be a lesson on our timetable, they talk about that for a little bit and tell people where they can sign up for that lesson. After the meeting, teachers go to their classrooms and wait for students who are in Class 3 or in ‘Sign-up’ to come around and tell them if they want to sign up for lessons with them; this is also the time to discuss any specific interests which could be accommodated during lessons. Class 1 and Class 2 students talk to their teachers and sign up with them for other classes in their classrooms.

It is interesting that when people from other schools visit Summerhill, they often ask us about lessons and timetables, thinking we don’t have any, but in fact we always end up creating a wonderfully complex timetable by noon of the first Sunday of term. The timetable is based on the information teachers gather from students during the sign-up session on Friday. All together we have 35 slots to work with; teachers are advised not to have more than about 30 lessons per week, students are advised not to have more than 25. There are, of course, always some people who end up taking more, but we are usually able to make the timetable work if it is only some people who exceed the “limit”. After hard work from staff during the weekend, individual timetables are ready for us to start our lessons on Monday.

• Halloween (31st October)
• Half Term (HT) ‘Slobbing days’: Friday – Monday with a party (Gram) on Saturday
• Guy Fawkes (5th November)
• Poky day / Single’s Day / Remembrance Day (11th November)
• Summerhill Christmas: Christmas lunch, carols, Christmas tea, Christmas supper (Friday before EOT)
• End of Term (EOT) celebration: Thursday – Sunday with a party (Gram) on Saturday
• Sunday, all leave by noon

• Lunar New Year
• Valentine’s Day and Game
• Half Term (HT) ‘Slobbing days’: Friday – Monday with a party (Gram) on Saturday
• End of Term (EOT) celebration: Thursday – Sunday with a party (Gram) on Saturday
• Sunday, all leave by noon

• GCSE Exams
• Swimming pool opens
• International Schools’ Week
• Half Term (HT) ‘Slobbing days’: Friday – Tuesday with a party (Gram) on Saturday
• Parents weekend: Parents and wider families are invited to join the school for the half term weekend
• Leavers’ Meal
• Music event
• Leavers Meal
• End of Term (EOT) celebration: Thursday – Sunday with a party (Gram) on Saturday and Auld Lang Syne for the Leavers
• Sunday, all leave by noon