Do your strict British schools get good academic results?

My kids came over to the UK from NZ when they were 12 and 14.

I think it's fair to say the educational experience wasn't as enjoyable, nor as relaxed as the NZ one. They found the noise and chaoticness really hard to deal with, as well as the fucking stupid rules like having to ask permission to take your jumper off, that sort of crap.

It's a lot more learning by rote, and reminded me of pigs being fattened for market - forcing in as much information as possible.

On the other hand, the teachers, in general, were fantastic - really engaged and incredibly willing to go the extra mile to help a willing and able student. They're as much prisoners of the system as the kids.

I think my girls got a far more extensive and thorough education than they would have in NZ - in the sciences for example, DH said they were doing stuff more like first year Uni in NZ and well beyond what they would have been studying in the equivalent year.

GCSEs, the number of subjects and exams is bloody ridiculous.

I roll my eyes when I hear politicians etc wondering with faux concern why so many kids are suffering crippling anxiety and other mental health issues, and why there is so much absenteeism.

One thing I fiercely resisted, was pressure about the kids being off sick, and to send them to school whether they were sick or not. I get it, the school's concern is the kids' education, and their stat's for Ofstead. My concern is for my child, their education, and the whole child.

My kids go to a strict school and are thriving. Their school is in the top 3 for our area for GCSE results

But lots of other schools using similar rules haven't seen anything like the same success

Michaela attracts a lot of very aspirant recent immigrant families who tend to do well in many schools
(They also have a reputation for managing out anyone with any kind of SEN.)

The same methodology used in schools in deprived post-industrial areas or those rural areas where there is only one secondary school for miles has been much less successful because the students and families are not as supportive of education in general.

My eldest daughter attends our local girls grammar school. The school was ranked first in the county in two league tables for GCSE results and is reasonably strict but not overly. They don’t hand out detentions for frivolous reasons. They have great pastoral care too which helps and when there was a case of name calling following some of the girls home on social
media, the school were all over it and talked to the whole class to resolve it.

Yes.

Yes. Same correlation in any school anywhere, regardless of how selective it is.

Yes but mostly because they drive the kids who won't achieve good GSCE results out of the school before they sit the exams. Or they only let them sit exams that they are sure to achieve their top grades. So if they'd get between the equivalent of Cs-Fs across all kf their exams. They'll let them sit the ones where they are predicted Cs and Ds only.

The state school with the best results in the country by far is the most famously strict one.