What does Katharine Birbalsingh do different?

[User2346]

I can’t say I like her but I am intrigued as to how she gets the results which are remarkable.

I know the model of zero tolerance etc but this is copied in a lot of academies without the resounding success.

Is there something different with the teaching methods? Is there an element of selection weeding out children with SEN and EHCP’s?

I would love the perspective of parents who have their DC at the school.

They do it here. No supervision, they are trusted to make their own way there and at least in my town I've only heard once of that trust being misplaced, and that was more to do with some children choosing an alternative route that they had been told not to take but its not happened again since the head sent a message out to all parents about it.

Huge increase here too (in ADHD, not sure about ASD), especially with boys.

How about in rural areas? Where there are miles of unlit country lanes and no public transport?

There are many serious problems in education: budget pressures, teacher recruitment targets not met, buildings in a poor state, white working class (in particular) attainment, pupil absence, rising SEN and ECHP, lack of cooperation from parents. Despite all this, many pupils achieve well, schools continue to offer extra curricula activities, schools increasingly take on roles formerly rooted in families - feeding children, washing their clothes. A more creative curriculum would be great but it couldn't be seen as a priority under current circumstances.

So, school pupils make their own way to another school, during the school day, completely unsupervised?

Surely not. Schools have legal responsibility for their pupils during school hours.

I doubt its happening in rural areas, I don't know if it even happens in many other areas at all, only that it happens in my area as the upper school doesn't have facilities for wood and metal work.

Yeah. 3km to the primary school for wood/metal work and when they do athletics they travel independently to the next town (7km) to the athletics field, where the teacher meets them when they arrive. They don't need supervision, they're not small children. They're also sent off by themselves in PE all round town for walks/bike rides/runs without supervision.

So, these are state schools in the UK?
To add: yes, they do need supervision. I'm guessing that the schools have no Safeguarding procedures?

I already mentioned earlier that I left the UK and my children go to school in a different country, so not state schools in the UK, sorry to confuse you if you missed that post.

Oh, I do apologise. I missed that.
It obviously works where you are. It would be illegal here.

No worries, easy to miss posts.

It does work here because they are trusted to travel independently even in lower primary (not during the school day, but to and from school) so of course once they're secondary age no one is worried about them travelling between schools.

This.

‘Rubbish’?

Sadly, many children are not taught about cooking or food hygiene at home. Largely because their parents likewise weren’t. If these skills aren’t taught in school, the cycle will never be broken.

And people make very good livings in areas related to textiles and food.

Also, pupils who are good at and enjoy something, whether it be textiles, or chemistry, or football, do better across all their subjects.

A broader curriculum is better.

a school will always be a closed of bubble insulated from the real world.
Completely disagree with this.
My mum is a retired head (albeit primary not secondary). Her school was small and had the full range of pupils, including some with material privilege and/or highly capable and engaged parents, some with absent parents or problematic home lives, some with neurodivergence/SEN.
The whole of the real world, in other words. Including many pupils who for a variety of reasons didn’t have positive input and modelling in their lives outside school.

The school did well in terms of academic
results, but the secondaries the pupils went on to also consistently said children from there were the most thoughtful, well adjusted, resourceful and empathetic of their intake.

So probably kids who were very well equipped to deal with the real adult world once they got out into it.

Again, how? What resources? Where is the money coming from to give this broader curriculum to everyone who needed it. Where are these DT labs, kitchens, textiles rooms coming from? Who is going to teach them? Where are all these teachers?

No evidence of this whatsoever

Where is your evidence?

When Michaela opened I remember hearing about how SEN wasn’t even acknowledged by the school. Those pupils it didn’t suit would then leave (of their own choosing?) and so it became known for not accepting children with SEN unless it was children with an autism profile that suited the very strict and regimented culture.

I think Michaela is good at what it does, in fact it’s great. Those results are amazing. However, it’s not a school that will suit every child and that’s OK.

I think I could teach in the school but not sure it would be for a long time. I can see the attraction for teachers who are burned out by poor behaviour in other schools though.

In the same vein, plenty of children aren’t taught a work ethic or how to handle money or how to present themselves well. Schools can’t teach everything.
It’s not very often that the cycle is broken when kids are taught these things. How often do kids who come from a home where they eat mostly food from the freezer start to cook healthy meals? Or exercise regularly thanks to PE lessons?
Children absorb what they are modelled at home when it comes to lifestyle.

Yes she's very annoyed at the education secretary's Curriculum and Assesment review which will make school have to do more creative subjects, arts, p.e etc - she said they aren't valuable subjects and they don't do them for a reason. Which I think is ridiculous. There's also reports of how badly the school impacts children's mental health, and that pastoral provision is bad.

KB is getting excellent results using an approach possible because she set up a free school. Foolish BP to clamp down on innovation with a 'one size fits all' approach that stifles innovation.

There are so many claims on this thread about the Michaela Academy, backed up by zero evidence.

The only thing we know for certain is that they have as much say as any other non-selective state school secondary regarding intake (almost none) and they have extraordinary academic exam results in one of the poorest areas in the country.

I think less mud slinging is warranted and more research is needed.

And, @Natsku , your ideas are lovely, but I think the UK literacy rates need a bit more input before we can let most thirteen year old loose on the street to go to their music/sewing/cooking classes!

Over 50% of men in prison cannot read beyond the level of an 11 year old.
This fact alone should make people take more notice of what’s happening in this school.

@Tutorpuzzle - excellent points 👍
Particularly the literacy one.

Thanks for the reply. I entirely agree. It seems to me that everything my children have to use seems to come with a big, distracting flashing something in the corner, and I don't understand how anyone is supposed to be able to concentrate with that going on. These tools might ostensibly have been designed for schoolchildren, but in fact they've not been designed with their best interests at heart but to make someone in California very very rich indeed.

Add to that the fact that failure at school now means no job at all rather than (potentially) a perfectly good one, it's not surprising there's been an explosion in ADHD diagnoses.