This is what the school children of Britain wanted back in 2001
The school we'd like is:
• A beautiful school with glass dome roofs to let in the light, uncluttered classrooms and brightly coloured walls.
• A comfortable school with sofas and beanbags, cushions on the floors, tables that don't scrape our knees, blinds that keep out the sun, and quiet rooms where we can chill out.
• A safe school with swipe cards for the school gate, anti-bully alarms, first aid classes, and someone to talk to about our problems.
• A listening school with children on the governing body, class representatives and the chance to vote for the teachers.
• A flexible school without rigid timetables or exams, without compulsory homework, without a one-size-fits-all curriculum, so we can follow our own interests and spend more time on what we enjoy.
• A relevant school where we learn through experience, experiments and exploration, with trips to historic sites and teachers who have practical experience of what they teach.
• A respectful school where we are not treated as empty vessels to be filled with information, where teachers treat us as individuals, where children and adults can talk freely to each other, and our opinion matters.
• A school without walls so we can go outside to learn, with animals to look after and wild gardens to explore.
• A school for everybody with boys and girls from all backgrounds and abilities, with no grading, so we don't compete against each other, but just do our best.
At the school we'd like, we'd have:
• Enough pencils and books for each child.
• Laptops so we could continue our work outside and at home.
• Drinking water in every classroom, and fountains of soft drinks in the playground.
• School uniforms of trainers, baseball caps and fleece tracksuits for boys and girls.
• Clean toilets that lock, with paper and soap, and flushes not chains.
• Fast-food school dinners and no dinner ladies.
• Large lockers to store our things.
• A swimming pool.
This is what we'd like. It is not an impossible dream.