Michaela school - experiences?

She came from a disadvantaged background

Eh?

Her father lectured at Warwick University and her mother was a nurse.

By your exacting standards I must have been brought up in a cardboard box at the side of a motorway!

@Zib Doh, what a fool I am. Of course. Michaela’s ethos is not for me but I do appreciate that people should have the right to choose.

I've never liked the sound of the Michaela schools. I doubt I would ever have sent any of my DDs there.

No provision at all for any form of special needs because apparently they don't need it. Two of my DDs (and maybe even all three of them) would probably not have coped. One had severe mental health issues and an eating disorder in her teenage years, although was and still is very academic. I doubt much pastoral care would have been provided. Another was just not academic and although well behaved was simply not suited to school life - she was relieved to leave.

every single child who'd started in Y7 with middle and high SATS results got 5s in maths and English

I know that her results are good.
But your statement literally says that all the middle to high SATS kids passed GCSE.
I would be pretty shocked at a school where the middle to high SATS kids did NOT pass GCSE.
Much more interesting is what happens to the kids who scored low in SATS?

I think she has raised a lot of interesting issues. She herself came from a disadvantaged backgroud and some of her ethos is a kick back against the parenting that doesn't allow a kid to succeed.

But I really seriously cannot get past her SEN views. They make me so angry.
So a kid, who in another context would benefit from the quiet focussed atmosphere, would get kicked out of her school for not being able to sit perfetcly still looking at the teacher.
Horrific.

I don't know the headteacher so 🤷🏻‍♀️ it's a bit unedifying for you to describe me that way.

There's a choice of schools and approaches: it seems weird to describe as racist a school where kids from minority ethnic groups do so well.

Also, their policy for SEN is here

michaela.education/policies-statutory-information/

So it's not true that they don't have a SEN department.

Whoever said it was marmite was right - thank goodness for school choice, so people can opt for a school like this if they want it and not it they don't.

Have the children with MH issues and SEN left the school? My DS would thrive but DD would fall apart at a place like that.

I started following her on Twitter recently, thinking she was an awful Harris-style rules-bot. And honestly, what comes across to me from that is that she really cares about the kids having the most secure, stable, calm environment possible so they can feel safe and free to learn. I don't really know if it's a school I would choose for my kids, but I don't think she is at all mad.

Saw this on her feed today and I know this approach would definitely help my kids to feel a good.

The results are for the year group taking GCSEs, which I think has 120 students in it.

@Zib does that screenshot show that Michaela has 31 “disadvantaged” students out of (roughly) 700? So, the equivalent of one class in the whole school? Or am
I misunderstanding?

Have you visited?

I really can't be arsed to argue with a Birbalsingh arse-licker, but the fact that she is determined that children from these backgrounds (BAME, disadvantaged) can only learn/succeed if they are treated the way they are at that 'school' is the classism. Anyone with a braincell should be able to extrapolate that.

Ableism is obvious: where is the SEN provision? Oh yes, they don't need it. They don't have SEN children. Wonder how they achieve that. 🤔Pop over to her twitter and read her opinions on SEN.

She's a disgrace.

www.itv.com/hub/britains-strictest-headmistress/10a2923

Where does the racism/classism/alblism come in @PollyEsther? Which groups are being discriminated against?

In terms of classism, the results data show that disadvantaged pupils at Michaela do far better, on average, than the average for non-disadvantaged pupils elsewhere.

What is the doc called pleased? Can't find anything on itv

I have a strong suspicion the school does what the high achieving schools and colleges did and do around me for approximately the last 20 or so years.

I was commenting on a comparable school with a similar ethos. But thanks for your input.

A 9 is a 9.

michaela.education/results/

I wouldn't call this 'floundering' at A levels.

She's an abelist, racist, classist twat. The school is bizarre and the results do not speak for themselves. They speak for the highly discriminatory system and the extremely limited curriculum on offer.

it or hate it. (Pressed too soon). The results are impressive, the children are happy and there is zero classroom disruption. I'm contrasting it with a recent thread about a 16 year old whose behaviour was making his mum ill - he was walking out of lessons, arguing with the teachers and generally being a pain. He had no SEN. I know which system I would prefer.

It looks amazing. I wish I lived closer to it.

I teach in a sixth form college near to a school that has tried to adopt a similar ethos. While they are Ofsted outstanding and get very good GCSE grades, the students flounder at A level - they have no independence either personal or academic. The school has served its purpose but does the students no favours in the long run.

Michaela is definitely a marmite school, you either love

It’s an excellent school and the kids are generally happy. They do well. Lots of the mumsnet left hate even the idea of the school (along with hating JK, Peterson, and anything else that the left hates). If you want to get a real feel - go visit.

Hardly zib. The only person who makes a fuss about the HT having conservative politics is the HT herself. She thinks it's a selling point.

And not every child is happy. It's like every school where some love it and some don't.

It is not healthy to teach children that mistakes aren't acceptable nor to deny them any social responsibility.

Their P8 is high because the cohort often comes from deprived areas where they haven't achieved what they can at SATs.

A decent school is usually somewhere between the deprived schools around the area Micheala is in and Michael itself.

You know - a school with discipline that allows a rounded education and accepts pupils are human beings and allows them to feel being human is enough.

Plenty of education staff are conservative. She doesn't have the monopoly on that.