Democratic / Sudbury or IB Primary Years?

The difference between Democratic / Sudbury and IB Primary Years is mostly one axis: what it is for. Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward childhood is the point; IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career. They agree, more than most people expect, on a view of the world. 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

IB Primary Years

Children investigate big transdisciplinary questions rather than subjects, within a framework that is specified in considerable detail. It is the most internationally portable education available, built for families who may move, and it is explicit about wanting to produce a certain kind of person — open-minded, inquiring, principled — which is an admirable aim and also a worldview.

What it asks of you

Fees almost everywhere, and usually substantial ones
Comfort with a school that states the disposition it is trying to produce
Tolerance for a lot of process language — the framework is heavily specified
A reason to want portability, or you are paying for something you will not use

Side by side

Where they differ

Democratic / Sudbury is the filled marker, IB Primary Years the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V3What it is for

childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward childhood is the point; IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career.

E1Mixed ages

classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward mixed-age groups; IB Primary Years sits toward classes of the same age.

L1Who directs the day

the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward the child chooses what to do; IB Primary Years sits a little toward timetabled, and directed by adults.

L3Measuring it

no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward no grades, no tests; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

L2When formal academics start

when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine; IB Primary Years sits a little toward early, and ambitiously.

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; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

L5What a teacher is

a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Democratic / Sudbury sits firmly toward a guide who steps back; IB Primary Years sits between the two.

E3Technology at school

kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Democratic / Sudbury sits a little toward built in from the start; IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

A view of the world. Both sit between the two.

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