Alternative school offering a safe space to grow.

BY TILLY ROBERTS

‘I CAME here from a primary school where I was bullied a lot and it was quite nice to have real proper friends for the first time,’ says Mary, a 13-year-old student at the West Cork Sudbury School.

Mary’s experience of mainstream primary school is far from unique. Teachers at the Sudbury School said they have witnessed many students heal from burnout, bullying, or other adverse experiences from mainstream school settings. 

Across Ireland, school absence rates have not returned to normal since COVID-19.

A recent Tusla report shows that more than 20% of primary and post-primary school students missed more than 20 days of school from 2023 to 2024.

Donnach, a 15-year-old student, said there was a lot more pressure at his mainstream school. ‘Sometimes it would leave me burnt out,’ he said, ‘but here I can just go at my own pace.’

The school opened in 2020, following the success of the Sudbury Schools in Wicklow and Sligo.

There are no formal lessons unless the students request them, no rigid timetables, and no expectation that everyone learns in the same way. 

The three most important things to consider when creating a space for learning and development, according to the staff, are safety, agency, and play.

One staff member said, ‘I’ve seen children who used to refuse to go to school not wanting to leave the school building at pick up time.’

Students choose what they learn, when they do it, and how deep they go, all guided by their own curiosity. Staff and students share an equal vote in school governance, building confidence, and a strong sense of agency–something which many students said was not present in their mainstream schools.

‘Sitting all the time, like six hours a day just copying everything that the teacher says.’ explained Ernesto, a 13-year-old student, when asked what was different in his mainstream school

‘There was only like half an hour to be outside.’

For many students at the Sudbury School the model offers more flexibility than mainstream school.

When asked what helps him when things feel difficult, Donnach said, ‘Being able to go outside and be by myself for a bit.’

Whereas Mary said that she feels safe ‘when someone acknowledges my opinion or existence in general.’

‘It’s really amazing to see how the kids will really express how they feel,’ said a staff member, ‘Especially when the space that has been created here shows them that their voice matters and will be listened to.’

Parents also describe their own relief at finding the alternative provision at the West Cork Sudbury School.

One parent, Lidija Mavra, remembers her son drawing his “ideal school” at a time when he was feeling very anxious about learning and refusing the mainstream model.

‘He drew a tree with a wooden house in it,’ said Lidija, ‘with children singing and dancing all around, with safe, kind adults encircling them.’

When Lidija asked her son to talk to her about the school, he said ‘There is no such school. It doesn’t exist.’

She says Sudbury offered her son the freedom to be himself and the community he was missing.

Another parent, Alejandro Keymer, shared how the model has helped his children become more confident, curious, and imaginative.

The West Cork Sudbury School is not just a school, it also offers its students a safe, supportive space to grow.

When students were asked if they thought they would be the same person if they went to a different school, the resounding response was: ‘hell no!’