Traditional or alternative?

24-hour school

One school in Hampshire, UK, offers 24-hour teaching. The children can choose when they go to school. But they can stay at home if they don’t want to go.

The school is open from 7 a. m. to 10 p. m., for 364 days a year (they are closed on Christmas day) and they offer online teaching at night. The idea is that students can decide when they want to study.

John Binner goes to school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because he has football trainings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He likes going to school because he meets his friends there. He doesn’t like getting up early, so he arrives to school at 10 a. m. and leaves at 4 p. m. When he is very tired or he has a match, he doesn’t go to school. He learns at home on his computer.

Cheryl Heron, the head teacher, says ‘Some students learn better at night. Some students learn better in the morning.’ She thinks that if children are bored, they don’t want to go to school and they don’t learn very much. ‘Why can’t children study when and where they like? You can teach a child if he never goes to school, too.’

Learn by listening

Steiner schools think creativity and free thinking are very important, so children can study art, music and gardening, not only science and history. Young children don’t learn to read and write. They don’t have books. The teachers talk to the students, who listen and learn by listening. Every morning there is a special class with music and movement that helps students to concentrate. Very young children learn languages with music and songs.

Nancy Lakes goes to a Steiner school in Edding, UK. She loves the school because she loves music and she can sing and dance every morning with her friends. ‘Music helps to learn maths and science, too, and I love gardening. We have vegetables and we often have lunch from our garden.’ she says.

And the best? There are no tests and there are no exams, the teachers only tell the children what they are good at and what they are not so good at.

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