According to an article in the Times, it appears that Watercliffe Meadow Primary in Sheffield now calls itself “a place of learning” rather than “a school”. Linda Kingdon, the head teacher had these rather disjointed words to say about her place of learning:

“This is Watercliffe Meadow, a place of learning. One reason was many of the parents of the children here had very negative connotations of school. Instead, we wanted this to be a place for family learning, where anyone can come. We were able to start from scratch and create a new type of learning experience. There are no whistles or bells or locked doors. We wanted to deinstitutionalise the place and bring the school closer to real life.”

Ms Kingdon, please could you answer the following questions? I’ll take a wild guess at the answers on your behalf (but as you’re the teacher, please feel free to tell me that I’m wrong).

• Do you subscribe to the notion that teachers are imperative to learning? Yes, of course (I have to justify my own existence somehow!)
• Do you have teachers in your place of learning? Yes, otherwise it wouldn’t be a place of learning, it’d be some kind of playgroup!
  
• Do you have lessons with a defined start and end point?  Yes, otherwise we’d never be able to run efficiently.
  
• Is the content of those lessons defined, by a lesson plan at least, in advance? Yes, my best teachers like to have a good idea of what their pupils need to know in advance.
  
• Does a teacher choose the content of those lessons? Yes, of course – the teacher is the expert. They know best.
  
• Does a teacher deliver those lessons? Yes -well how else would the children learn?!
  
• Are the lessons delivered to meet the requirements of a national curriculum? Yes, that is the national framework we have to work within, because the government said that was what children needed to be taught.
  
• Is the children’s work marked by a teacher? Yes – how else would they ever find out if they were right or wrong?
  
• Do you segregate your children into classes? Yes – we’d never get through the national curriculum quickly enough otherwise.
  
• Are those segregations defined by age and/or ability? Yes - no-one would learn anything worth knowing if we mixed them up like that!
  
• Is adult educational provision separate from the children’s? Yes – of what use would a Key Stage 3 class be to a 50 year old?
  
• Do you have place of learning rules – for example – that children must sit, be quiet, eat at a prescribed time, ask permission before going to the toilet etc? Yes, we expect a certain standard of behaviour in our place of learning. We need to be able to control them. Children must be taught respect for their elders.
  
• Does a teacher enforce those rules? Yes, we believe in being tough on behaviour we deem to be  undesirable.
  
• Do you use a system of reward and punishment to achieve desired behaviour? Yes, children need to be shown by someone else when they’ve done well, or badly.
  

And now, Ms Kingdon, the bonus round:

• Would you agree that if the answer is “yes” to all or most of the questions above then you are essentially using institutional coercion in order to “educate”?
• Would you agree that coercion teaches dependence on authority and that therefore, over time, it destroys an individual’s innate ability to problem solve (and therefore learn through experience) because it destroys intrinsic motivation by placing a premium on conformity, rather than autonomy?
• Would you agree that if this is the case, then it doesn’t matter what you actually call Watercliffe Meadow Primary, whether a bell rings, or who can walk through the unlocked door?  

Really, Ms Kingdon, it doesn’t matter how invisible your boundaries are, you still have an institution on your hands, but you don’t even appear to be aware of it*. And if that’s really the case, I wouldn’t be worried about what the Campaign for Plain English has to say about you. Your problems are far more widespread than that.

*although I am glad you recognise in your comments that school as we know it is rarely a reflection of or adequate preparation for "real life".