6 to 8 year-olds
The 6-8 year-olds have a day-programme from Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 3.30 pm. They begin their day with community work where they participate in cleaning up spaces and getting them ready for the day. Assembly is a time where the whole school comes together each morning. Classes follow with breaks for snack and lunch.
These classes are a mix of hands-on activities and academic subjects. The children have opportunities during the day to interact with children across ages and adults during community work, meal times and certain classes where senior students volunteer to assist. Their day ends at 3.30pm after snack when they leave school.
8 to 18 year-olds
The 8 to 18 year-olds have a semi-residential programme from Monday to Friday. The eight to fourteen year-olds spend two nights on campus every week and the fifteen to eighteen year-olds spend four nights on campus every week.
Students and teachers live together in small hostels, in a relaxed and informal ambience.
The day begins with a 7 am wake-up, for exercise, bird-watching, observation or quiet nature walks. Senior school students get to sleep in till 8 am, something that we have put in place after reading the research on the dangers of sleep deprivation in adolescence. After breakfast, during community work, the hostels and learning spaces are cleaned, garbage is taken out, the land is tended, and vegetables are chopped for lunch. Everyone, young and old, is part of this process. On some days this is followed by a long period of quiet, solo time for everyone on campus.
Assembly follows, a time for singing or for presentations. The entire community comes together in these activities.
Classes begin after assembly. The day is a mix of activities inside and outside the classroom, from math and language to pottery, art, woodcraft and land work. The kitchen, meanwhile, continues to hum with activity right through the day, with parent volunteers and teachers working to get meals ready (cooking here has always been a community activity). The food in CFL is vegetarian and varied.
Late afternoons are a time for games, exercise and boisterous activity. Dinner marks the beginning of a quiet period of study. All is quiet (well, nearly!) by 10.30 pm.