There are not many workplaces or institutions where employees sit in lines facing the blackboard or are called to their desk by an electronic bell sounding at regular intervals.

So do not expect bells or lines of desks at Merrylands East Public School in Sydney's western suburbs. "We have chairs, cushions, bean-bags or they sit on the mats," says John Goh, principle of the school. "They have to get themselves organised and that includes getting themselves to class without a bell."