If you're looking for progressive alternatives to conventional methods in education, you’re not alone.
This online hub explores progressive approaches to education which are forward-thinking and aim to equip students with appropriate skills for the 21st century.
We present a variety of options so that parents/carers, teachers, students, policy makers and other professionals can make informed choices. Our directory includes a list of progressive schools and learning communities in the UK, and our Voices section showcases innovation from the state and private sectors.
We are committed to sharing the voices of key stakeholders so that together, we can reimagine education.
Why Do We Need Alternative Approaches to Education?
There are many reasons why progressive alternatives are becoming more popular, and why a growing movement of people are calling for our state education system to be reimagined.
Articles, News & Research
Response to UNESCO’s ‘Education in a Post-Covid World’ Report
In UNESCO’s Progress Update on the Futures of Education, published in March 2021, UNESCO denied the value of Self-Directed Education and autonomous learning, despite much significant scientific evidence to support its efficacy. Considering such a stance could seriously jeopardise the UN agenda 2030 to lead to a regenerative education by 2050 for more just and sustainable futures. Gabriel Groiss, […]
Why I Started a Small School, by Rosalyn Spencer
Dan’s personality had begun to change after he’d started school. He had often been tired and down-hearted when I’d collected him. I had to take into account that he not only had to deal with the new demands of full-time schooling but also had to adjust to a new baby in the home and the […]
Journal of Pedagogy: Home-Based Education
Volume 12 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021), Special Issue: Home-Based Education Volume 12 of the Journal of Pedagogy ran a special on home education. It includes articles on: Invisible pedagogies in home education: Freedom, power and control The experience of adults who were “unschooled” during their youth: A phenomenological approach Should educators promote homeschooling? Worldwide […]
Evidence Base for Self-Directed Education
By Rose Arnold, Suitable-Education.uk, first published October 2021 “Self-directed education is a pedagogy grounded in biology, anthropology, cognitive science, psychology and child development. It is not claimed that self-directed education is the only way that children can learn. However, being as it is an approach based on and supported by well-established and rigorous research from across multiple […]
IDECs at Summerhill from 1999 to 2021 – What’s Changed and What Hasn’t? What Needs to Change for United Nations ‘Sustainable Development Goal 4’ to be Realised by 2030?
Transcript from Derry Hannam’s talk at the online Summerhill Festival of Childhood, October 3rd 2021: My 1999 IDEC [International Democratic Education Conference] talk was given at Summerhill when the school was under threat from Ofsted inspectors. There had been a hostile hatchet job inspection earlier in the year and the school had been told to […]
Learning: Lost and Found, by Patrick Farenga
Learning that’s lost in school can be found in many ways, if it needs to be found at all. As a homeschooler and author, I field many questions about the lost educational and social opportunities children face by being out of school, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made the issue of lost learning a deep […]
Becoming a Learner, by Sean Bellamy
When I first went up to Cambridge University, I didn’t find Europe’s largest library for over six weeks. I never went to a single History lecture, despite being told that some of the country’s finest minds would be sharing their theories with me. When I did find the library, it was like a cathedral of […]
Rethinking Education: Launch of Podcast Season 2, by James Mannion
[A link to the audio version of this article is found at the end.] If you follow the mainstream education debate as avidly as I do, and really here I’m talking about the debate as it plays out largely on the internet – social media and blogs, predominantly, as well as at conferences and in […]
Learning Through the Lens of Nature and Natural History is Child’s Play, by Lisa Carne
Lisa Carne shares with us a flavour of her book, Natural Curiosity, which is a warm and contemplative insight into her family’s experience of moving from mainstream schooling to home education, and learning through the lens of nature and natural history: “People say to me, ‘How did you first become interested in animals?‘ and I […]
Diverse Educators Call to Action
Context: Since July 2020, Diverse Educators have held a quarterly Diversity Roundtable with national stakeholders invested in, and committed to, a system-wide strategy for collaborating on a DEI strategy in our schools. They collectively wrote to the DfE, the SoS, the NSC and the Equalities Team on March 1st 2021. They are yet to receive […]
Books about Self-Directed Learning and Democratic Education are like London Buses, by Derry Hannam
…None appear for ages, then they all come at once! Does this mean that we are looking at a Post-Pandemic Overton Window for our ideas? And how do we feel about ‘for-profit’ democratic schools? I grew up in South London and my dad was a bus driver. There was supposed to be a number 47 […]
Collaborative Decision-Making: the beating heart of classroom learning, by Dr Geraldine Rowe
This article describes my doctoral research into shared decision-making in the classroom and offers hope and encouragement to teachers and school leaders who seek greater collaboration with their pupils. In my mid-fifties, having worked as an Educational Psychologist for over 30 years, I decided that I needed to find a way to reinvigorate my professional […]
Voices from the Sector
Parent Voice 3
Jessica – Unschooling Mum and Educationalist Educationalist, Jessica* currently home educates her four-year old and has chosen to follow the ‘unschooling’ approach. Jessica has worked in education for nearly 20 years in a number of capacities. She has been a teacher in colleges and universities, been involved in teacher training and the design of learning […]
Parent Voice 2
Ross Mountney – Home Educator and Author Ross Mountney is a parent, home educator and author. She started her career as a teacher which she says “was a bit daft really” as she was never at ease with the school environment. That was when she began to suspect that much of what went on at school was […]
Parent Voice 1
Kirstie Gran – Parent and Trainee Holistic Family Health Coach Kirstie has a son in mainstream school and a younger daughter at home. She’s become interested in progressive education since she started studying the brain and how it develops in children. She’s currently studying to become a Holistic Family Health Coach and previously completed a […]