To not understand why Katharine Birbalsingh is so controversial

A former archbishop didn't rate his book was as far as we got.

Of course you were thinking about the English 😁 The naturalised Poles can chose to tick the box "White British", y'know 😉

I don't think there are many "English working class" families in Brent anyway. I know the statistics re. White boys you were referring to but I'm not sure it's geographically relevant in this case.

Did anyone actually explain why Jordan Peterson is so terrible? I read the first four pages but "JP is awful" seemed to be stated as an established truth, but no-one explained why.

Nothing's wrong with Jordan Peterson. Controversial view on Mumsnet but still true.

It would be good if the approach was replicated more widely we'd then start to see the barriers in different areas and factors which can be replicated.

I'd be interested to find out more about SEND in the school. As she says their approaches meet needs which I can see for some SEND pupils who would thrive on the calm environment but there are others who do just need something different, do they adaptwhen needed? I wonder if they just don't opt for this school or get managed out? Like many successful high performance secondary schools tbh.

There are many unexamined questions about Michaela but given the known facts about it's fantastic outcomes you'd think they'd be huge curiosity instead of the angry resistance for spurious reasons like who she speaks to.

@Ubertomusic I understand what you mean now : ) The distinction between white British and white Eastern Europe is very important. It's why I was careful to refer to white British in previous posts.

White do-gooders know better where people of colour should go! 😁

This is all shocking and embarrassing, frankly.

You still can't explain where you would get more "White British" (I presume you mean English) pupils for the school if there are not so many of them living in the borough 🤷‍♀️

Kilburn have pockets of multi-million houses of artsy type families, they would never ever apply to Michaela. They count as "White British" or "White Other" in the borough stats but they're not working class and they are never going to improve Michaela's "racial mix" (tbf I find it hilarious that you call Michaela "less ethnically diverse than neighbouring schools" 😂 ).

The figures show Katharine Birbalsingh is head teacher of a small school in north London.
She makes a big noise though.

They were probably some of the outraged posters from this thread 😂

With "My child must do drama" placards.

(But your child doesn't have to come to this school, so calm down madam.)

Or " She talks to academics I don't like'" placards.

(Oh JBP? we think he's great.)

Do you see the problem yet....?

@Ubertomusic. I spent five years living in Kilburn at the heart of the mighty borough of Brent, so I'm pretty well acquainted with it.

But thanks awfully for telling me what you think I need to know.

The average class size in years 7 - 10 is 33, in year 11 it’s 29, suggesting they might be offloading the no-hopers before GCSEs.

In year 12 there are 66 students and in year 13 there are 52, so again a fall in exams year. That seems quite a large percentage drop.

Interestingly she talks about how the 'protestors' who stood outside the school and disrupted parent meetings to object to the school being created when she was setting up the school, were all white middle class parents from out of area.

Disrupting the meeting for the ethnic minority parents who wanted this type of school in their area.

White British constitute 16% of Brent population.

Other White make 9.1% of Michaela intake - the Poles are Catholics and have no problem with discipline and hard work.

That's probably what you need to know.

Well she definitely does some things which improve measured outcomes that much is obvious yes.

She should be congratulated. Teacher retention would also be improved if classrooms were orderly and they could spend their time doing what they were trained to do.

White working class boys are among the lowest performers though. There are a few groups that are lower.

She does the game the system, but not in the way others mention. The lower number of subjects. Much great curriculum time on core than many.

They are very strong on value added. That is undeniable. It’s also true that until they invent grades higher than 9 my own school can not equal that. Many of my students cannot do higher than predicted as the data says 9. It will be interesting what happens without that data set this year.

The LA manage the admissions and set the criteria, the school has no say. KB has been very clear about this time and again.

The intake will represent the local area.

It's quite something when we've reached the phase of 'the results are so high because there are so few white kids...'

I already have, at some length, on pages 7,8,9 of the thread. I'm not typing it out again you'd have to scroll backwards.

The website states the average class size is only 24, which obviously means a lot of classes have even fewer students than that.

Small class sizes; tiny numbers of white kids; small year groups; a small outside area to patrol. It'd be odd if behaviour were not outstanding.

This stat alone tells you all you need to know.

Could you explain what you mean?

Percentage of white British kids on roll? 1.1%

This stat alone tells you all you need to know.

Do you think 1.1% of the 245 applicants (for 120 available places) were white British?

The 245 applicants (which I agree is surprisingly low) for 120 Year 7 places still means that first-choice applicants are almost exactly double the available places. And this ignores the significant numbers of second- and third-choice applications.

Brent council’s website defeated me.
The figures I could find say that there were 245 applications listing Michaela as first choice. Full breakdown here. Scroll down.

That’s not very high.

@AquaPeer

The admissions are through Brent like the state secondary schools in the borough. They simply offer places on allocation criteria and Brent publish all their admissions information on their applications portal

How could she (or any headteacher) select?

By running a 'free school', which as the name suggests is 'free' of the rubric and control of the local education authority (LEA).

The admissions are through Brent like the state secondary schools in the borough. They simply offer places on allocation criteria and Brent publish all their admissions information on their applications portal

How could she (or any headteacher) select?