"Sudbury trusts students to trust themselves." -- Saint Louis Sudbury School student

Saint Louis Sudbury School students are life-learners, exploring the world on their own terms: no coercive curriculum, grades, tests, or homework. We value autonomy, dignity, and respect.

Our Mission

We believe that children are born with the drive and skills to create a meaningful and successful life and learn best when given the opportunity to initiate and develop learning on their own. Within a self-governing democracy, our school community protects, respects, and trusts the autonomy of young people.

Our VISIOn

Saint Louis Sudbury School envisions that all young people in the St. Louis region have access to a unique educational choice—one that integrates self-directed learning, innate curiosity, trust, and responsibility within a supportive and thriving democratic community.

HOW IT WORKS

Age-Mixing
While most schools segregate students based on age, Sudbury students freely mingle. Instead of being assigned to a class or group, Sudbury students have free access to solitude, small groups, large groups, younger students, older students, and adults within the school and broader community. We see Saint Louis Sudbury School teenagers engaging in nurturing and playful behavior with our younger students. The older students get to be meaningful role models in a way that isn’t possible in conventional, age-divided schools. We see our younger students frequently experiencing what child development researchers call the “Zone of Proximal Development,” where students are interacting with the knowledge, skills, and development levels that are close enough to their own to feel approachable and desirable to them, while encouraging their internal drive to grow in order to play with older kids.

Democracy
”The point of school meeting is to inform people what’s happening for the day, have discussions to talk about school issues, and make motions to get things done.” — Saint Louis Sudbury School Student

Sudbury schools truly belong to the students and staff. Three times a week, students and staff are invited to attend the School Meeting, where all big and small decisions are made collaboratively. This includes proposing and planning field trips, adjusting and approving the school budget, creating and amending school rules, approving volunteers, making recommendations to the Board of Directors, proposing possible guest instructors and classes, and more. This is where students learn what it takes to listen, consider the needs of their school’s community, be informed, ask questions, advocate for causes, negotiate, and balance personal responsibility with that of others. Every person, regardless of age, gets one vote.

Judicial Committee
When anyone at school (student or adult) breaks a school rule, they can be written up by anyone else for review by the school’s Judicial Committee. This elected committee, comprised of students and a staff member, decides on logical consequences to enforce school rules. Everyone takes a turn with this “jury duty”—upholding this structure is a necessary part of the freedom of being a Sudbury student.

Self-Directed Education
Sudbury students are not obligated to follow any specific curriculum or bell schedule. Their time is their own. For many, this looks like a lot of unstructured play! It also looks like passionate investigation of diverse subjects, driven by genuine curiosity. It often means sharing passions with each other in casual conversation. There is no “typical day” in a Sudbury school.

Sudbury students learn what they want, when they want, with whom they want, for as long as they want, to the depth of their interests, in the way that best suits them. Activities are allowed as long as they are deemed respectful, responsible, and reasonable by School Meeting members.