Give young people power and they'll use it well

I'm always amazed at how the stories written by Enid Blyton retain their appeal down the generations. The ways of life and modes of behaviour they reflect are entirely alien to the majority of children growing up today and yet something about the characters and their relationships seems to endure. I've never thought this more than when reading the ‘Naughtiest Girl' series of books with my seven year-old. If you don't know it, it's all that you would expect from the genre - capers and calamity at a boarding school in the heart of the English countryside. What makes Whyteleafe School different - and this is no doubt where the appeal lies - is that the children make the rules. This being Enid Blyton, that doesn't lead to a descent into Lord of the Flies savagery but to a well-ordered school community with complaints heard and consequences agreed at a weekly meeting presided over by firm but fair monitors and an egalitarian sharing of resources.