Summerhill laws 2011
SUMMERHILL LAW BOOK
Autumn term 2011
Latest printing 13th September 2011
Notes about Freedom and Licence
In Summerhill “freedom”means individual freedom. This means that you can do what you like, so long as it does not interfere with the freedom of somebody else. So, you can wear no clothes if you want to, dye your hair bright pink, and never attend any classes at all, because that is your own business –but you cannot play your music at 3:00 am, pee on the lounge floor, or skateboard in the corridor because it affects other people.
The Summerhill laws generally define this difference between freedom and licence, though some are there to protect particular people or things.
Just because there is not a law against it –does not necessarily mean that you can do it!
And if there is a law that you don’t think is good –bring it up in the Meeting!
BATHS / SHOWERS
Only Shack Kids can use Shack showers between 8:00 – 9:30
No one can have a hot bath in the House between 9:30 –14:00 and 16:30 –18:45 –water is needed for washing up. You can have cold baths
Only Carriages can use Carriages’ showers between 8:00 –9: swimming no one but Carriages can use Carriages’ showers for half-an-hour
Only people who live in the stable area can use the stables bathroom
You can’t queue-butt the shampoo queue in the Carriage shower
You can’t go in or out of the Girl’s Carriage showers if you are dripping wet
You can’t shower with the door open
BEDDIES OFFICERS/ BEDTIMES AND MORNINGS
First Night of term
Shack and Carriages – no bedtime
House – 1 hour after the second bus
San and Cottage – when the second bus comes at the latest or at BOs discretion
Bedtimes
San
Bedtime 20:45 – 21:15
Weekends 21:15 – 21:45
Cottage
Bedtime 21:15 – 21:45
Weekends 21:45 – 22:15
House
Bedtime 22:00 – 22:30
Weekends 22:30 – 23:00
Shack
Bedtime 22:30 –23:00
Bedtime Friday 23:00 – 23:30
Saturday 23:30 –midnight
Carriages
No bedtime
Beddies Officers
BOs can get either reserves or other BOs to cover for them but reserves who have not done it before must have an experienced BO with them.
BOs can only Q butt if they have done their job properly.
BOs have to tell you by the next day if you were fined. They have the whole day to tell the Fines Officers and the person they fined.
BOs can sleep in the day after they work until . If they sleep in at other times it gets dropped.
BOs get standard fine of half-Poc if they wake people in extreme ways
Ruby, India and Surya are Super BOs
Super BOs must put “early Bedtimes”fines people to bed
BOs have to close all windows at bedtime (in public areas)
Trainee BOs can only train once a week
Trainee BOs must go to bed after shack lights out
BEDTIMES
Nobody can watch screens during and after Bedtime (Except House as part of House bedtime)
You must change into night clothes before you go to bed.
You have to be in your area at bedtimes.
Boys’ Shack can keep their room light on after lights out (People who want to turn the light off have more priority).
People who proposed to sleep in have to re-propose it next term if they still want to.
No one except BOs, House kids, and Andresa is allowed in the House at bedtime.
Housekids can’t drink cokes during and after bedtime.
Maths room is part of the Carriage area (re: bedtimes)
You can only sleep in someone else’s room, in your area, twice a week. Beddies Officers have to run it by the houseparent. You have to propose it in other areas.
If you are left alone in your room over the weekend you can sleep in someone else’s room
No one is allowed in an area while their bedtime is on
Only one person at a time can seep in other rooms
House kids can’t be outside their rooms for 30 minute after lights out
Mornings
You can’t go back to bed before 12:00
You have to have curtains open by 8:30
Carriage doors must be open and unlocked by 8:30
Wake-up time is 8:00 –you must be up 8:30
Can’t use vuvuzelas at wake-up
Beddies Officers waking people in extreme ways –fined same as for breaking Silence Hour
BIKE LAWS
People have to lock up the bike shed every time they open it
House and under have to be with carriage kid or staff to go outside Leiston
Shack and over have to tell houseparent if they go outside Leiston
Shack & over have to take a mobile with houseparent’s number if they go alone
You have to pass your bike test before you can cycle down-town.
A staff can take people on bike rides without the bike test
Can’t go down-town on bike if dark and bike has no lights (UK Law)
A 13 year old can bike downtown alone after passing the bike test. A 12 year old who has passed the test can go with a 13 year or above or a staff.
You can’t ride San kids bikes, even with permission
Bike rides can use San kid’s bikes (with permission)
Can’t leave bikes in hallway of the bike shed
BOTTLE HOUSE
5 people on the Bottle House Committee
Only shack and over can run for bottle house committee
You have to propose to open it and use the sign-out sheet
Only Shack & over can open it
House & under can’t be alone in bottle house
CAFÉ
You have to propose if you can open and cook in the Cafe
CaféCommittee don’t have to propose that they can cook or open the Café
You can’t use the projector in the Cafe without Tobe’s permission
You can only take things from the Caféif you bring it straight back
When the Caféis short of small things, like oil, CaféCommittee can go directly to fines and not go through the meeting
You have to empty the bin before you sign out
CaféCommittee have to put keys in the staff-room at EOT
CAMPING
You have to ask the BOs if you want to sleep out in a tent and tell your Houseparent
House and under can’t sleep out with their own bedding –must use alternatives such as sleeping bags
If you don’t tell BOs and house parents that you are sleeping in a tent –20% fined
CARRIAGES & CARRIAGE KITCHEN
No one can stay in the Carriage kitchen without a Carriage kid
Can’t go in the Carriage kitchen after silence hour unless you propose it –even only going to the fridge!
Can’t use Carriage kitchen TV until silence hour ends in the morning.
Carriage kitchen chair can’t be taken outside.
Carriage Kitchen group – If you don’t turn up to kitchen meetings you are chucked off. You renew your membership by coming to meetings.
Carriage Kitchen can be closed and re-opened by Health and Safety.
No one except Carriage Kitchen users are allowed to use the Carriage Kitchen fridge.
Everybody in Shack and Carriages have to have their own responsibility to oil their doors.
Can’t keep football dirty clothes and shoes in the bathrooms.
COMMITTEES
You have to be Shack and over to run for Health & Safety committee
New kids can’t vote for the first half of term and can’t run for committees until their second term
You can’t take the book around and run for a committee at the same time
Investigation Committee can get help from anybody they need to, but everybody on the committee has to agree with it
Half term committee needs to bring it up if they want to close the lounge early
You can queue butt when you take the book around
People doing peg office don’t have to be work fines supervisor
There is a screen policing committee of three people to stop people breaking the screening laws
COMPUTERS, SCREENS, FILMS AND INTERNET SAFETY
You can’t use any screens for games including facebook games, movies and YouTube etc or hang out on computers or use social networks until 15:30. You can use computers or films for research purposes before that time.
You can only watch inappropriate material in private (this includes porn, un-rated films and extreme violence)
You can’t expose people to inappropriate stuff without consent (e.g. no flashing pictures of inappropriate stuff)
You have to be 14 or over to watch inappropriate stuff (this includes, porn, un-rated films and extreme violence)
Being in a room where somebody is watching inappropriate stuff or rated films counts as watching it
Video games are included with rated films
10 years and over can watch a 15 film or video game
16 rated games count as 15 films
12 years and over can watch an 18 film or video game
Under 10s can watch a 12 film or video game
You can’t watch 18s in Little Kids Sitting Room
In LKSR or their own bedroom, under age kids have priority over films (you have to switch them off if the person wants to stay in there)
You can’t mention Summerhill or your personal information on teen chats
No on else is allowed to use anyone else’s online accounts
£5:00 SF for messing around with Facebook
DOWNTOWN LAWS
No swearing downtown
On weekdays you can only go downtown from 5:00 – 9:30 and after 12:00
A 15 year old can take 9 years and under downtown
A 10 and 11 year old or above can go downtown together
You have to be 13 to go downtown alone
You have to tell your Houseparent where you are going and for how long –if you will be anywhere other than at the shops
You have to propose it if you want to go to a day kid’s house
If you will be out for more than 2 hours you have to tell an adult
To go to Ipswich or other East Anglian big towns (Norwich, Lowestoft, etc) you need to be 14 and over and cannot go alone
Carriage Kids are allowed to go downtown on their own until 20:00 all week (except on Fridays and Saturdays)
Shack & over can go DT with skateboards and blades, under have to propose it
Winter downtown laws apply after the clocks go back:
After 17:30 no one can be downtown alone
House and under back by –17:30
Shack back by –21:00
Shack with Carriage Kids back by –22:00
Carriages back by –22:00
Summer downtown laws apply when the clocks go forward:
After 18:30 no one can be downtown alone
House and under back by – 18:30
Shack back by –22:00
Carriages back by –23:00
END OF TERM & PARTIES
A Clean-up princes is elected for EOT to clear up after the party. They tell the next term meeting who helped and gets paid. Must be carriage or staff
Picture committee can queue-butt free bar
Bar can’t borrow from people, only from the office
People can’t play around the car park and the front of house during parties
Parents and relatives can’t be in the Lounge for Auld Lang Syne at EOT unless they are Old Summerhillians
You can’t pole dance anymore
San kids bedtime is 12:pm on half term party nights
Summer Half Term
If you camp with parents you have to go to bed when they do –unless you are at the party, then you have to go as soon as you get back to the tent
No one can be on the camping field after 10:30 unless they are sleeping in a tent
You have to tell the BOs where you are sleeping
Saturday night Silence Hour is 11:pm (around the school, not in the lounge)
FINES
Standard fines are in a section at the end of the book
Bedtime fines:
A whole room can be given late night fine
Work fine
24-hour screen ban –starting 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 the next morning
½day screen ban
Pudding fine
Early morning walk fine
Carriages can get fined a bedtime
At EOT you can get fined party ban, back of free bar queue, free bar, and swimming session.
10% of Poc
Lunch plate cleaner (12:30 – 13:00)
Work fines from BOs only count if the Fines Officer and the person who was fined are told the next day (BOs have all day to do this this)
„Tea biscuit’s fine” means you can’t get anyone else’s biscuits either
If people don’t come to Poc to pay fines, they get back of Poc queue for next week
People on the Bullies List
Cannot go to any social event (Gram, TV, Cinema, etc)
Cannot talk or vote in the Meetings
Cannot go downtown
Cannot use screens (video, computer, console etc)
Must go to the back of all queues
FIRE ESCAPES
The fire door at the end of the top corridor can only be opened during a fire or fire practice.
Fire escapes are out of bounds unless for special training days.
GAMES & SPORTS
You can only book the table tennis table for half an hour.
You can tell people to shut up when you are playing table tennis.
Games on the Hockey field can only be booked for one hour a day and must be written on the whiteboard
Can’t play football from the back door to the end of the Boys Carriages.
Can’t play football at the Girls’Shack
Can’t play football against wooden walls.
You can’t play football on the Hockey-field when it is muddy
No ball games by the back door
If a window is broken in a ball game, everybody playing pays for it
Trampoline:
3 San kids
2 Cottage +1 San
2 House kids
I Shack & over
You can’t jump off anything onto the trampoline
You cannot put wheels or anything with sharp end on the trampoline
You have to put bikes at least 2 meters away from the trampoline
You’re not allowed to sit on the green part of the trampoline – it counts as the part of the trampoline
If somebody’s waiting for the trampoline, the person on it has to get off in five minutes
Trampoline age laws don’t apply if you are not bouncing
Trampoline has to be 5 metres from the Spider’s Web
You can’t move the trampoline without Will
Trampoline laws only count if you are bouncing (not if you are only sitting on it)
GARDEN
Only Carriage & Staff can use the scythe
Tools must be brought back to the garden shed before dark
Person borrowing tools must pay for them if lost –even if they lent them to somebody else
GOING AWAY
You can go away for the weekend three times each term
When going away, you have to go to the sec on Friday and tell the sec. If your case is not an exception, the Chair will read out the list as a Going Away announcement. If your case is an exception, the chair will take it as a Going Away case at the end of the meeting. Staff are included
If you sleep out of the school with parents (at home or B&B) at parent weekends, it counts as a weekend away
You must sign the book before going away for a weekend and you have to fill in the Going Away form the day before you go
You have to propose it before you buy tickets and make arrangements
You can’t call a special meeting for going away
GRAM
Gram can play very quietly while people are doing stuff in the lounge but other things take priority (such as Table Tennis)
Gram is Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturday’s
HALLOWEEN
You can go Trick or Treating at 18:00 and come back at 20:00
Carriage and Shack have to take little kids and not go on their own
You have to be dressed up to go Trick or Treating unless you’re supervising
HOUSE
House Kids have to take down their washing baskets the night before their washing day and bring washing up before bedtime
If House Kids don’t bring their washing baskets down to the Beeston the night before their washing day, they get 50p fine. (standard fine)
INSIDE BUILDINGS
The whiteboard by the kitchen is for important notices, the other one for everyday messages
No wheels allowed inside buildings
No playing with water inside buildings
You have to check with Pat before moving furniture that isn’t yours
You can’t have any sticks, cardboard tubes or large weapons inside (guns and knives are alright)
In the Little Kids Sitting Room, lower batteries take priority over higher batteries
TVs take priority over laptops in the Little Kids Sitting Room
No one can use room 3 in the Girls’Shack while it is empty
You’re not allowed to use the plugs in the Cottage fire escape room
KITCHEN, DINING ROOM & FOOD
Not allowed to hang round the hatch
No getting on dining room tables
No sticks in queues
You can eat outside but must bring the cutlery and crockery back
The newspaper stays in the dining room until the end of the day but can be taken out for photocopying –the end of the day is next morning
You can only queue up from 12:15 from the hatch to the door at Christmas lunch
People can’t play ball games around the kitchen
No one is allowed to use their laptops in the dining room during meal times
No drinking from the jug in the dining room
You have to have your name on your mug if you hang it in the dining room so no one can use it
Standard fine 50p for drinking from bowl, someone else’s mug or jug
LIBRARY
Can’t play computer or electronic games
People reading have priority and can kick people out
No eating or drinking in library
LITTLE KIDS’ SITTING ROOM
You can’t leave CDs, DVDs, etc in the Little Kids Sitting Room –only stuff charging can be left in there
If a Little Kids Sitting room committee person loses their key they can’t get one until next term
No eating or drinking in LKS
MEETINGS
The Chairman has ultimate power
All the laws can’t be dropped without 24 hours notice and it goes first on the agenda
On visitor’s day meetings must have an experienced chair
The standard fine for not leaving the meeting when you are asked to : £2
You cannot appeal the fine you got in the same meeting
Secretary must be in the Lounge before the Meeting so that it can start on time
Only experienced chairs can do the Friday Meeting
Tribunal & Meeting cases are separate, Meetings cases are first
New kids & San kids cases go first, even before the Meeting cases
When you are secretary for 2 Meetings you can queue butt Poc
You can’t get cases or announcements during the Meeting. Only before it starts
50p Standard fine for harassing people about their proposals
You can’t sit on the stairs past the first landing in the Meeting
The standard fine for damaging the lawbook is half poc
You can have drinks in the Meeting
People need to be told that they are being brought up on the day of the meeting and the standard fine for not coming to a meeting is 10% of your poc
MONEY / POC
People going away and wanting POC early have to find the ½or EOT bar committee as well as the Fines Officer for clearance
If you have money stolen more than £5 that was not kept on your Houseparent, the Meeting won’t refund it
House and under should not have more than £5 on them, it should be kept with the houseparent
You have to pay money fines at POC
You can go in front of POC queues if you take books around
Whatever happens, POC ends at 14:30.
MUSIC ROOM
No one is allowed to have anything electrical in the music room or be there unless you’re doing something musical
OMBUDSMEN
You must be over twelve and have been here two years to be an Ombudsman
Ombudsmen can ban or chuck anyone out of anywhere or confiscate things until the Meeting
There are no Ombudsman reserves
OUTSIDE BUILDINGS
No spitting on tarmac
No throwing knives at trees
You can’t graffiti on the ground with anything but chalk
Nobody’s allowed to socialise in the area from the back door to Tobe’s caravan
There’s a silence hour in the area from the back door to Tobe’s caravan
You can skate outside the back door out of lesson time, but must stop if asked
People can’t move benches around without the Meeting’s permission
PEGS
You have to have your name on your peg so it is easy to read
You have to put your peg in the proper place on the board before you leave the school and put it back when you return
RUBBISH & RECYCLING
Cardboard boxes must be flattened in recycling area –Standard fine of 50p if you don’t flatten them
SAFETY
Carriage rooms cannot be locked with keys at night for fire safety reasons
If you go downtown when you sneak out you can get sent home for a week
You have to have your parent’s permission to stay overnight at somebody’s house
You can’t go to local kid’s houses unless you have been invited by an adult and they have contacted the school
Fire, fire doors, fire escapes and fire safety equipment
You are not allowed to mess about with fire safety equipment, including fire doors
Only Shack and over are allowed matches & lighters
Not allowed to leave josh sticks or candles alight when leaving the room, they are only allowed in glass containers
No josh sticks allowed in the House
You can’t light fires in the Woods by Geaters
No fires allowed behind Shack & Carriages
Only Shack and up can have fires outside
Fire escapes are out of bounds unless during a fire practice or fire
No fireworks allowed (UK law)
Not allowed on any roof –except Carriage Kids to get things off flat roofs – £ fine
Laser lights are banned
You can’t hang on the back of cars or lorries with a skateboard or blades
BB guns are banned
You get sent home for four weeks if you drink or smoke dope
You can’t jump on the spider web
Big Beech
You can’t climb the Big Beech when it’s dark or wet
San kids can’t climb Big Beech
Knives, blades, machetes
Only House and up can have penknives
No sheath knives or large penknives downtown (UK law)
Only Shack or over and can have a machete. They can only use it in the woods and are not allowed to carry it around
Any blade over 6 inches classed as a machete
Can only use throwing knives in Hockey or Horse fields
Bows and Arrows
Crossbows and arrows are allowed only on the Hockey field and if no one is around
Bows & Arrows have to be kept in your room while not using on Hockey Field
Not allowed to point or shoot at people with bows
SAN & COTTAGE
San Kids need to ask an Ombudsman before they can swap, lend, buy or sell anything
San Kids get priority on San swings
Sandpit toys have to stay in the sandpit
Cottage kids have to go to an Ombudsman to lend or borrow over £
No ball games between the San and San swings
SILENCE HOURS
The silence hour starts at bedtime in the House
Saturday and Sunday – Until 10:30
Carriage Area
Weekdays – Shack lights out – until 8:00
Weekends – Shack lights out – until 12:00
Silence hour across the Shack / Carriage area is 12:00 but people can be in the Carriage Path if they are quiet
SKATING & SKATEBOARDING
You can’t go on the half pipe when it’s wet
If people annoy people who are skating on the half-pipe, they can tell them to go away
Skaters are not allowed to move or use the wooden benches for skating on them
SMOKING
You can’t sell cigarettes
Only Shack and over can smoke
No smoking inside
If someone smokes in your room you get fined too
Only Carriage kids can smoke downtown
You can’t smoke around House or younger
No flashing cigarettes
You can only smoke in the smoker’s area
Smokers have to announce they are smokers in the Meeting
Everyone house & over have to go the smokers’DVD and talk once a term
SWIMMING POOL
No running around the pool
You can’t throw things (except pool toys) into the pool, including during the winter
When the whistle blows everyone has to leave the water immediately
No jumping or diving in beyond the filter
After diving in you can’t swim back to ladder underwater
No pushing or throwing people in
You can’t stand or walk on the pool dividing wall
San kids can jump in the shallow end
No dunking and holding people under
A short blast on the whistle, everyone has to look to the whistle
Trained Pool Ombudsmen (Carriage kids) can open the pool with a staff
1 staff and a Pool Ombudsman can take up to 20 (maximum) kids
For safety reasons a staff can have less than the maximum number of kids usually allowed in the pool
You are not allowed in the pool in anything other than swim-wear which is only used for swimming
You can only throw money into the pool for events
You are not allowed to leave anything around the pool when you close it
A staff with under 10 people in the pool can act as Ombudsman if they are the only person opening it
You can only use swim-wear that is only used for swimming
Limited Swimming Sessions
Limited swimming sessions can only be for half an hour and must be written up on the board
VISITORS, PARENTS & OLD-SUMMERHILLIANS
Ex-Summerhillians have to have it proposed if they are visiting for more than a day. At EOT they can come on Friday afternoon and must go by Sunday evening without proposing it
Parents can only take other kids swimming in a public pool with a qualified life-guard
Parents can’t go into any areas during their silence hour
Parents can go into their kids’ rooms if they need to do something in particular but not just to socialise (Carriage rooms are excluded)
You can’t go downtown with visitors
Visitors can only photograph or video if they ask people first
Visitors can’t climb or swing off the Big Beech
Visitors must leave the premises at 16:00
No visitors during first or last weeks of term
When visitors are coming it gets announced in the Meeting
Staff have to propose they can have a visitor to stay
If there are visitors coming, the Visitors Committee have to write it on the board or announce it in the meeting
Visitors cannot use the Library toilet
STANDARD FINES
Smoking – £
Standard fine for harassing naked swimmers –5 swimming sessions banned
Anyone who harasses someone else about their body gets one day swimming-pool ban
Leaving your room in a mess at EOT –Poc
Stealing berries from Geaters –half Poc
Graffiting other people’s names to harrass someone – £
Messing with pegs –Poc
Wiping stuff off whiteboards – £5:00
If you don’t sign the book before going away for a weekend –Three days gated
Not allowed on any roof –except Carriage Kids to get things off flat roofs – £ fine
Breaking silence hour –½POC
Drinking alcohol –sent home for four weeks
Smoking dope –sent home for four weeks
Staff being drunk – £
Going on fire escapes or mucking about with fire equipment – half Poc.
Standard fine for disturbing lessons is 50p, and it can be given by both Ombudsmen and the Meeting
If Tess is brought up for selling/giving cigarettes to under Shack – £30:00 fine
If you don’t flatten cardboard boxes when recycling –50p
Spitting on tarmac –50p
Not telling BO or house parent that you are sleeping in a tent –20%
£5:00 SF for messing around with Facebook
EXCEPTIONS / BANS
Luca and Yusuke can use blades downtown
Coco is allowed to use his knife and shuriken, if there is a Carriage Kid with him
Jack gets House trampoline laws
Kanon and Popono can go on the trampoline together
Luca has the House Trampoline laws
Zoëcan stand on Dining room tables to sing
Joshua can use his axe with Will and keep it in the Woodwork
Ty and Hugo can go to football training on Wednesday and stay with carriage kids until finished
Popono can sleep in House area twice a week
Orson has to clean his own room if he sleeps in
Orson can’t be on his bed from 08:30 –12:00
Boys Shack have Friday late night if they don’t break bedtime law in the week
Dawn doesn’t need to announce she is a smoker to have an occasional cigarette
Andresa can watch screens in the morning for her research project
Luca can’t borrow money
Clarissa /Amy can look after the community pin and white boards instead of doing work fine supervisor
Oscar can lend his bike but only when he is at school