IT IS the epitome of a liberal education, a school that allows pupils to skip classes, lay down their own rules and punish their classmates.

Now two leading educationalists are planning to set up a Scottish version of Summerhill, the “free school” in Suffolk that allowed pupils to handcuff their peers and bathe in the nude.

Professor Brian Boyd, of Strathclyde University, and Sir Graham Hills, the founder of the University of the Highlands and Islands, are in talks with senior local authority officials to launch the school, which would put the “expressive arts, creativity and interpersonal relationships” at the heart of the curriculum and consign exams to the margins of school life.

The idea of the “free school” was pioneered by AS Neill, the Scots teacher and philosopher, who founded Summerhill in Leiston, Suffolk, in 1921.

Pupils at the “Scottish Summerhill” would be allowed to decide whether to wear uniforms and when to attend. They would also be free to develop their own disciplinary code.

“There would be no imposition of uniforms and rules,” said Boyd. “These would be negotiated with the young people. The school would be founded on mutual respect and pupils would work with adults to ensure that the dignity of the individual and the balance of the individual and group was managed on a day-to-day basis.”

Boyd added that the focus on exam results in most schools was producing a generation of children unfit for working life and unable to make a positive contribution to society.

“The whole structure of secondary schools is inimical to learning,” he said. “Learning to learn, to think outside the box, to solve problems, to work with others in teams, are sacrificed at the alter of exam results.”

Boyd believes the school would cost about £5m to establish. The state school, which would be funded by local authorities, would cater for about 500 pupils aged 12-16 drawn from across Scotland.

Hills, a former vice chancellor of Strathclyde University, added: “Talk to anyone who employs young people and they are always complaining about the inability of young people to perform the most simple functions of speaking, writing and numeracy. We want to create a school which makes the learning experience relevant and attractive to young people and which pupils enjoy.”

Keir Bloomer, the chief executive of Clackmannanshire Council, and a former director of education, said he was very interested in the plan, which he said would bring diversity.

However, critics of the scheme have pointed to Summerhill’s chequered history.

In 1993 it was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary that showed pupils beheading a rabbit with a machete and swimming in the nude.

In 1999 David Blunkett, the then education secretary, served it with a formal complaint demanding that pupils be forced to attend lessons. However Summerhill defended itself at an independent schools tribunal and won, saving itself from closure.

Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector of schools in England, said pupils needed a structured environment. “It is right that education teaches children traditional knowledge about traditional subjects and I think that is what the vast majority of parents want,” he said.

However, Zoe Neill Readhead, the headteacher at Summerhill and daughter of AS Neill, was delighted that Boyd and Hills were hoping to follow her father’s model. “Our school educates the whole child, their emotions as well as their intellect,” she added.

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