In 1972 Royston Lambert, head of Dartington Hall School asked Dick Kitto, who had been working there since 1955, to set up a project in conjunction with Northcliffe School to provide education for a group of non-academic students who would have to take another year in school due to the pending raising of the school leaving age. Kitto established a free school or democratic school model for the running of the project and was impressed by the qualities of the students even though they had effectively unschooled themselves within the school system, where they were perceived as trouble makers.
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| - In 1972 Royston Lambert, head of Dartington Hall School asked Dick Kitto, who had been working there since 1955, to set up a project in conjunction with Northcliffe School to provide education for a group of non-academic students who would have to take another year in school due to the pending raising of the school leaving age. Kitto established a free school or democratic school model for the running of the project and was impressed by the qualities of the students even though they had effectively unschooled themselves within the school system, where they were perceived as trouble makers.
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| - In 1972 Royston Lambert, head of Dartington Hall School asked Dick Kitto, who had been working there since 1955, to set up a project in conjunction with Northcliffe School to provide education for a group of non-academic students who would have to take another year in school due to the pending raising of the school leaving age. Kitto established a free school or democratic school model for the running of the project and was impressed by the qualities of the students even though they had effectively unschooled themselves within the school system, where they were perceived as trouble makers. Kitto's school caught the attention of Stan Windlass, who had been working for a children's rights centre in London, through which he had become aware of several families who were educating their own children. Windlass had just taken the lease of Lower Shaw Farm and wanted to establish it as a centre to explore ideas for an alternative society. Windlass asked Kitto to become the warden at Lower Shaw Farm after the Northcliffe School project ended. Kitto was familiar with ideas about unschooled education through reading John Holt and Joy Baker's Children in Chancery along with his experiences at the Northcliffe School project. He and Windlass were able to contact several families who were educating otherwise and arranged an informal network, and occasional meetings, between them throughout 1975 and 1976. During 1976 Granada television made a programme about the group which resulted in around 200 enquiries and expanded the membership to over 50. The informal nature of the group could not handle such a level of interest and so, at a meeting in September 1976 which included five deschooling families, a more formal structure for the group was established with stated aims and a regular newsletter. In 1977 Kitto presented a BBC TV Open Door programme about the ideas behind the organisation. This resulted in over 2000 enquiries and increased the membership to around 250. The original logo (based on a UK traffic sign) had what many perceived to be goose-stepping children breaking out of the triangle. The logo was therefore redesigned without any militaristic overtones.
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