ABSTRACT
The free schools of the Coalition Government bear little resemblance to those that flourished in the heady days of the 1970s. Their inspiration, A.S. Neill’s Summerhill School, was to become something of a cause célèbre, defying the combined might of OFSTED and the DfE. While Summerhill spectacularly survives, its imitators have largely disappeared and been co-opted into the mainstream. Schools without walls, which flourished in the same era, may enjoy something of a renaissance, as school buildings can no longer contain the learning that takes place increasingly in the virtual world.
