Hofwyl School

Hofwyl School was a progressive Swiss boarding school and teaching college in the village of Hofwil near Bern, founded by the educator Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg at the start of the nineteenth century. Fellenberg took over the estate in 1799 and turned it into several schools meant to serve every level of society: a school for the poor, a secondary school for local students and an institute for the sons of wealthy families from across Europe. Its main building was put up between 1817 and 1821. The school was known for combining academic study with farm work, which helped pay for the pupils' keep so that most paid no tuition, and for refusing corporal punishment and rewards. It was called the first agricultural school and inspired schools elsewhere, among them Ealing Grove School in England and Hofwyl House in Tasmania. After Fellenberg died in 1844 the schools closed one by one. The Canton of Bern bought the building in 1884 for its teachers' college, and it later became a music institute for older pupils with an optional boarding school.