Michaela school - experiences?

I just watched the ITV documentary about this school fully expecting to hate it, but I must say I am so impressed with the head, the teachers, the kids. It clearly works. I agree with everything she says, especially about setting high standards for the kids regardless of their backgrounds/ home situations.

Having said this, my daughter would HATE this school 😂It would be her nightmare coming true (particularly the phone detox 🤪) and she would be in constant detentions. I can see how a child who doesn't want their lessons disrupted by bad behaviour would love this school and I think it provides great opportunities for disadvantaged kids to get an excellent standard of education.

@sammyvine
She gave a speech at the Conservative party conference back in 2011. She’s politically motivated. I’m amazed she’s still a head and not an education political guru. She’s no doubt aiming for that.

I prefer strict schools.

Ark Academy is literally next door to Michaela, and the school is strict. I would happily send my children there. I just don't like the way the head of Michaela criticises other heads and labels them as lefties and gets involved in culture war debates. How does she know how every headteacher in the country votes? Not all teachers are left leaning or vote Labour/Green Party. If she really cared about improving schools and education in the UK, should would not be behaving the way she does, and be so insulting. She is clearly is being paid to play a character/role.

Loads of schools don't feed kids if no money on lunch accounts, it's canteen style and if no money loaded up via parentpay then no food. If kid was to say they were hungry in a way to raise staff concerns there would be safeguarding referrals and I'm sure school might find a way around but mostly they just don't know who has eaten.

I've been to a Michaela open evening and decided it wasn't for my kids. But there were some very good things, the "textbooks" they had written and were working through were very well written. Lots of other local secondaries were a Mish mash of PowerPoints and YouTube videos.

I thought the silent corridors thing was nuts but was in Preston Manor (school down the road from Michaela) and shoved across corridor while pregnant and began to see how scary corridors could be.

That's the problem isn't it. As someone whose DD is going through soul destroying retakes some more direct teaching to the test from the start of y7 in English might well have been to her benefit.
Or it might have switched her off completely.

Yes, that would get grade 4 teen as that would be inference. It's hard to square the circle here of soul destroying teaching and excellent results . I guess many might argue the end justifies the means.

Really interested to hear some first hand visiting experience Piggy

I think that would be a dull way to learn.

But it would still be learning, and not a long discussion on why Bob, Mary and Sam think it means different things and why that's not quite right? Obviously that is learning too, but is it learning that helps get that grade 4?

My DD would have loved quiet corridors. And well behaved lessons. Probably not a lot of the other stuff though.

I observed that same rote learning some of you describe when I visited a Micheala style school. They won't even let student use their prior knowledge (much lauded word ironically) to work out what words mean in texts , for example, which is basic literacy.

They tell them what it means.

If found that soul destroying. Ad all the teaching to a script...

T : The adjective 'monotonous' is in line 8. 'Monotonous' is an adjective which means very dull and boring' . Underline 'monotonous'.

STUDENTS UNDERLINE

T : We now know that monotonous means dull and boring. What does 'monotonous' mean, class?

STUDENTS PUT HANDS UP. Teacher chooses Saurav

Saurav : 'Monotonous' is and adjective which means very dull and boring, Miss.

I am not making this up.

We have had students leave that school to come to ours. They suffer considerable culture shock at being asked to think for themselves and self regulate behaviour.

I did like some aspects of the school. The silent corridors were bliss. But the school was carpeted and small.

The answering in full whole sentences can sometimes be completely unnecessary and counter productive. To give an example, full sentences as the only appropriate way of answering has been so drummed into some of my GCSE students that they spend ages crafting a sentence for something worth one mark in their exam where a one word answer would gain the mark. I have needed to unteach this.

In class sometimes proper quickfire answering is held up by long sentences.

What teachers do need to learn to do is to stop being so in thrall of 'pace' that they interrupt student answers.

No.
I mean focusing in lessons and going through work after school.
I mean answering politely in complete whole sentences.
I mean making sure they have all needed equipment at lessons and homework done.

How often do you see posts on MN saying that youngsters at work can't speak to customers, or turn up late, or do bare minimum work?

Have you ever been in a Michaela lesson, NotQuiteHere or are you basing that memorising without understanding on hearsay?

Knowing how to work hard
By "work" you mean memorising quietly what the teacher/the textbook says without discussion and, consequently, without understanding?

Be organised/responsible
You mean "follow instructions without questioning". This is not being organised or responsible. To be organised or feel responsible, you need to be able to make your own decisions.

Knowing how to communicate clearly and politely
I think it is more like "knowing you place and not arguing"

And yet, how often do we see parents on here comparing schools and looking at %9-7s or A star / A at A level. Schools will provide what parents and Ofsted reward.

The curriculum and exam system is dire. As you observed - effective teaching g to pass papers can be boring as hell. History no longer promotes rigorous analysis, English no longer improves literacy, French can involve minimal spoken language on very restricted topics.

The tyranny of league tables and ofsted make this hard to challenge.

I can’t help thinking that we are a bit behind the curve with this current focus on passing exams and discipline above all else. I visited a local academy where the girls get great results and the progress scores are fantastic, but the history lesson I observed was so boring. It was an interesting topic but the teacher was spoon feeding the children on how to pass their exam rather than engaging them and having a discussion. It was constant repetition of key phrases and getting them to highlight certain bits of a source. None of the girls I spoke to had a favourite teacher or were enthused about education, I thought it was sad.

As more and more jobs are replaced with AI, surely we should be prioritising creativity, independence of thought, adaptability and people skills? Won’t that be what our children need to succeed in the world of work?

What helps a child get on in the world if they don't have money & connections to fall back on?

I would say:
Maths & English GCSE
knowing how to work hard & be organised / responsible
knowing how to communicate clearly and politely
5 GCSE passes gets you on to Level 3 courses
8 GCSE passes with good grades helps you towards university

It seems to me that that is what Michaela school is focusing on. To the detriment of a wide curriculum certainly which may well take some / a lot of the 'joy' out of learning and end up with less well rounded people. But they will have the certificates and attributes needed to get on in the world of work.

Yes, and I have mentioned the low number of GCSEs pupils sit and that it isn’t for everyone more than once. While the % of EHCPs is below average it sits roughly in the middle of the schools in the LAs with 8 schools having a higher % (including 2 with ARPs) and 7 lower (including 1 new school whose % may not be representative), and the % on SEN support is above average. None of that means I am in any way connected to the school.

@Thatsnotmycar
The published stats for the school tell you what it’s like. A reduced diet of GCSEs but high progress 8. If you take 8 GCSEs of course! Very many don’t! Low number of send plans and strict behaviour. Not for everyone snd a self publicist as a head. Dame coming next probably!

There you go again with the accusations. Aren’t you patronising. I am not emotional, there’s nothing about my posts that are emotional. I’m not the one who has to stoop to accusing others of being connected to the school.

I actually have no problem with the school existing and believe in parents having a choice of school. I don't believe the school should be shut down or anything silly like that. Clearly she is doing something right as the school gets amazing results. You would be an idiot to say otherwise. My problem is I don't believe any headteacher should be putting down other schools, labelling teachers and headteachers as 'lefties' and getting involved in culture war arguments on social media, and she does that routinely which is why I wonder if she deliberately does that for attention or perhaps she is paid by the Tory government? I don't see any other headteacher (those leading great schools) doing what she does.

This.

It's what I've been saying too.

My issue is T what she does and that some parents choose the school.

My issue is her politicalising the issue and being so narrow minded she cannot see why the same just wont work everywhere and how different her school is from other schools.

I'm also a fan of strict behaviour expectations.

I'm not a fan of unrealistic expectations because it increases anxiety.

I know exactly what classrooms are like nowadays.

But thanks for the generalisation you've accused other of!

And yet, in more than one post I have mentioned it obviously doesn’t suit all, I don’t agree with all the methods and raised concerns about the reduced number of GCSEs pupils sit. Challenging misrepresentations of statistics doesn’t equate to posting how great the school is. But clearly in your quest to accuse others you cherry pick parts of their posts that you can twist to fit the narrative you want to post.

Middle attainers whose parents are fully engaged, and DC are too, will get their GCSEs. It’s up to all schools to engage all children but the ones who are most likely to succeed from this area of London like the strict discipline of Michaela. So it suits everyone. They are a good match. The less engaged middle attainers won’t go there.

KB is a political animal. She stood up at the Conservatives Conference in 2011 and said our education system was broken. She’s a Tory. She was removed as Deputy Head from a school in Camberwell after using pictures of pupils as she attacked the quality of education there. Toby Young supported her in getting a school of her own. They are disruptors and you are either with them or against them.

If she truly cared she wouldn't be labelling headteachers and teachers all over the country as lefties and talking down on them. Instead she would be trying to work with them and see how they could come together. How does she know what political views of all the headteachers that exist in the UK?