Blog

"In Hong Kong Sudbury, there is a 16-year-old student named C who has been attending for five years. This year, C decided to become a full-time apprentice as an arborist, specializing in tree felling, pruning, and tree care across different districts of Hong Kong. Despite leaving Sudbury, C still visits and maintains connections with the school."

"Sudbury schools often face questions about how their students transition to secondary school or university and whether they can keep up."

"How can we ensure that children are exposed to enough areas if they don't even know about certain activities? Will they miss out on learning opportunities if they don't try them?"

"In the 21st century, a common gripe about children and teenagers is their deep-seated fascination with digital devices, their vulnerability to getting hooked, and their tendency to use the online world as an escape from the real world."

"My children have been attending Sudbury HK for a few months. Sudbury is a self-directed community without any curriculum, and the staff there don’t have to conduct any lessons if no one requests. Some people may wonder, ‘Are the staff just idling there? They’ve got nothing to do!’ "

"A few years back in Sudbury, there was a boy diagnosed with dyslexia in mainstream school. Before he came to Sudbury, his mother had sought help from various professionals, hoping to improve his learning ability. But those are not helping at all. The boy found it very frustrating to go to school. He had low self-esteem, and he was not happy."

"At Sudbury Parents’ Day, we discussed that although Sudbury children do not get any academic reports, we, as parents, observed that while our children are obviously learning, they have developed many intangible skills at the same time."

"In Sudbury, children are not required to stay in the classroom. There is no homework, no test, no exam… People tend to think children don’t need to face any challenges and wonder how they can deal with the real world."

"The age gap between my eldest & youngest son is 17 years. My eldest grew up in the mainstream schooling system with an authoritarian style of parenting. With My youngest, I adopted the approach of respectful parenting and Sudbury's Self-Directed Learning. I often get asked what my youngest son has “learnt” at Sudbury."

"Ever since my daughter withdrew from mainstream schooling to pursue Self-Directed Learning, our family has learnt a lot, experienced a lot, evolved a lot together. However, friends and other family members are somewhat, understandingly, worried about her future out of well-meant concern. How will she ever get into university if she isn’t going to school now? What will she do for a living without going to university? Will she be able to make a living and support herself in the future?"