Democratic / Sudbury or Forest school?

The difference between Democratic / Sudbury and Forest school is mostly one axis: technology at school. Democratic / Sudbury sits a little toward built in from the start; Forest school sits firmly toward kept out until late. They agree, more than most people expect, on a view of the world, what it is for and what the family can put in. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Democratic / Sudbury

The most thoroughgoing position available. There is no curriculum and no timetable; children do what they choose all day, and lessons happen when a child asks for one. The school is run by a meeting in which every child and every staff member has one equal vote, including on rules and on staffing. The claim is that motivation cannot be manufactured and that a child left to find their own will find it.

What it asks of you

Genuine nerve, sustained over years, with no reassuring milestones
Accepting your child may not read until nine, and being able to live with that
Explaining the choice to family, and eventually to admissions systems
Fees, since almost none of these are state-funded

Forest school

Long sessions outdoors across the whole year, led by the children, with real tools, real fire and real risk assessed rather than removed. It is a pedagogy rather than a school type — most children get it alongside something else — and where it runs as a whole setting, formal academics start late and the body does most of the learning.

What it asks of you

Kit, laundry, and genuine indifference to weather
Accepting a higher rate of scrapes as part of the design
Checking it is the actual model rather than an outdoor afternoon with the name attached

Side by side

Where they differ

Democratic / Sudbury is the filled marker, Forest school the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E3Technology at school

kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Democratic / Sudbury sits a little toward built in from the start; Forest school sits firmly toward kept out until late.

E2Outdoors and the body

learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Democratic / Sudbury sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point; Forest school sits firmly toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

E1Mixed ages

classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward mixed-age groups; Forest school sits toward mixed-age groups.

L4Where the curriculum comes from

it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward it emerges from the children; Forest school sits toward it emerges from the children.

L5What a teacher is

a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward a guide who steps back; Forest school sits toward a guide who steps back.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

A view of the world. Both sit between the two.
What it is for. Both sit firmly toward childhood is the point.
What the family can put in. Both sit toward being in it, daily.
Measuring it. Both sit firmly toward no grades, no tests.
Who else is there. Both sit a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.
When formal academics start. Both sit firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.
Money and distance. Both sit a little toward we can pay, and we can travel.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing