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.

Very driven parents - at the detriment of the children.

I think any parent who is placing such a priority on schoolwork and grades that a child is having to do 3 hours of extra work every day just to keep up, is not putting the well-being of that child at the forefront. If they were adults and that was a job, and they put in their 7 hours at work only to have to go home and do 3 more hours unpaid just to keep up with the workload - that would be seen as a problem. How come it's not a problem because it's children?

What about when the child hits burnout? Will the Michaela school be there to pick up the pieces, or will the child be managed out to another school that will have to help that child to recover from their school experiences - because children who don't fit their very narrow mould (academic children who are good at sitting still and regurgitating information in an exam) take too much time and effort?

There are plenty of ways for a school to illegally off roll children they can't be arsed to support. For example, one way to do it would be to implement lots of nitpicky rules so children who were forgetful, or who have sensory issues around uniform, or who struggle to track the teacher, or who can't sustain attention for 10 hours a day, would be constantly in detention having their self esteem eroded. Until they eventually burnout and leave the education system altogether, or move schools. Or a school might ignore the law and refuse accomodations or reasonable adjustments to disabled children until they have to leave because they can't access the school environment. Or just completely ignore children with EBSA - there's absolutely no way for parents to force a school to put in adjustments etc. They can do what they like.

It would be fascinating to hear from the parent of a child with EBSA at that school.

I expect She isn’t saying they can’t attend, she’s simply saying she can’t give the same level of support as another school . If parents want to send them there then they can but that would seem an odd decision to me sending you children to a school where you will have the minimum of support vs a school with lots of Sen teachers, lots of experience. Why would any parent do that- parental choice means parents can look around school and pick the best one for their child.

What if the children don’t burn out and fully embrace the environment, come out with high grades and go on to have immeasurable opportunities they wouldn’t have had?

Because it's illegal.

A headteacher does not have the legal right to tell a family that their child cannot attend the school because of a disability and that they should just piss off somewhere else. Schools don't say it out loud, they do it through actions instead, but it's still against the law.

It's pretty appalling that anyone thinks schools should just be able to reject disabled children out of hand just so they don't have to spend money on SEN and they can just concentrate on the non disabled kids. Which disabilities should schools be allowed to discriminate against? Would you suggest a list?

Shall we go back to putting disabled kids in institutions? Out of sight out of mind eh?

Again where is the evidence she is doing that? She is allowed to say this is how her school works and you decide if it best for your child. If a parent with a child with a high degree of Sen wants to go there and she says, she can’t give as much support as the next school along which is bigger with economies of scale so can employ more teachers and better support- what is wrong with that? Why would a parent not choose the other school is it better resources?

She's not allowed to say that. That's discrimination and it's illegal. That's what you're not understanding. She is not allowed to illegally offroll or refuse children because of a disability. If her school can't meet a child's needs, they should apply for an EHCP after providing SEN support on the APDR cycle. They cannot simply say "you don't belong here, we don't want you, go to that other school".

There's a reason we have laws protecting disabled children.

Your last sentence contradicts everything else you've said. Parental choice. Parents can choose where their child attends. The headteacher doesn't get to choose "not that child, not in my school" based on their level of SEN needs.

Is there any actual evidence at all that "you don't belong here, we don't want you, go to that other school,” is being said, @Confuuzed ?

Accusations like this, with nothing to back it up other than hearsay and rumour, does nobody any favours, least of all children.

Parents can’t always choose where their child attends or there wouldn’t be any schools with waiting lists. And schools with waiting lists are inevitably the ones with better exam results, primary and secondary.

I don't need to provide you with any evidence. Please can you show me where I've said that this is definitely what Michaela school is saying?

I have enough experience of having SEN children inside a broken system, and supporting families with SEN children, to explain ways in which schools make children with SEN very unwelcome so that they feel the need to leave. Its illegal but they do it anyway.

If you're going to insert yourself into a specific conservation on a thread, you could at least read it properly so you understand what has been said. The person I'm replying to said that the school/head has the right to say that children should go to different schools if the school doesn't want to provide SEN support, and I'm pointing out that that they don't. All children are entitled to an education, even disabled ones, and a school is not allowed to tell them to go elsewhere only on the basis of a disability. Its 2025, how does this need to be explained?

Yes, I thought you might have wanted to clarify that one @Confuuzed . It was quite a dangerous accusation.

I’ve been adding to this thread this regularly for the last couple of days. There are many people on here, including me (a very long term teacher) who are able to discuss the school without the emotional hyperbole.

I take issue with the idea that KB's approach focuses solely on exam results. Understanding the relationship between effort and reward, being able to speak confidently in front of others, expressing gratitude for what you have, all provide good foundations for adult life.

I grew up in Brent in the 80s and my comprehensive school was awful. I would have loved to have gone to this school!

Lots of parents don't really understand the system, it's confusing and they often get lost, particularly if they're from deprived areas, BAME or different cultures that have different understanding of sen, EAL themselves, they encourage they're children to do well but can actually be quite disengaged from understanding the system. I also didn't say it's all Y7 students, but that has been noted by a few heads in her surrounding area, they may be lying but I can't see why they would, and why it would be 2 or even more, including past students who have talked about there time there.

Again I think some of the rules are so unnecessary and just produce conformity. Now every school does to am extent which is needed, but she goes to far to a way in which they aren't taught that sometimes you can and should respectfully stand up for yourself even to authority, she essentially makes the children in conformist little robots, I think there's value in teaching children that sometimes they should say no, or disagree or argue with their teacher (in a sensible way about theory or ideas, and potentially know more than them, which should be celebrated and in schools I've experienced that do this, it's better than just straight respect). I think the younger generation are showing that respect even for adults should be earned, and that students and children should be more assertive, etc. Again her school lunch thing costs £75 (last time I saw) for 6 weeks, and kids whose parents are late with the money, have to sit elsewhere as in a separate area - as if that's not humiliating and degrading. Some parents may have forgotten, they may not have the full £75 and so paid less, they mat be sick, busy with life - loads of reasons but those kids are singled out for it. The kids in the dining room will know that Jasmine isn't here because her mum didn't pay, why would you do that to a child. Whilst it doesn't apply to FSM kids, the threshold for that is very low (until 2026 when all UC kids will finely get it), and the cost of living is actually crazy. They'll be many parents who weren't struggling before and then something happens, and they don't know where to get help, they feel ashamed and don't ask for it, many other barriers. It's estimated that 2/3 of families considered to be in poverty don't qualify for FSM. I'm not against everything she does, but as a whole, I don't think her school should be the benchmark to be followed, she gets good grades, which is great but I think she leaves the kids lacking in other areas. Grades matter and I do think there's some value in exam, but it's not the only thing that matters.

Very different approach from St Helena's which still gets the good part of the community and eating but without the unnecessary punitive approach or one of utter submission to authority.

"St Helena School in Colchester, Essex, is an academy school for children aged 11 to 16. When I visited earlier this year, the headteacher, Zoe King, explained that all pupils,regardless of family circumstances, receive free school meals. "

The other thing of having no displays is such a useless rule, I don't want schools to have the most ridiculous display policies and force teachers to spend countless hours on them either, but displays can often have helpful information, they can show student work, which is lovely positive praise, and the liven the place up, colour won't kill them, you can have colourful displays and walls, and good grades and behaviour. It shows the soul of a school and the passion and the individuality and skills of the children or the teachers. They aren't ever allowed to do group projects and are quite restricted to memorisation only (to some extent all schools are but I'd imagine even with the planned changes to exams etc or if a radical system was implemented she'd do the same). There's no situational judgement either with punishments, not saying that bad behaviour shouldn't be punished, but behaviour is a form of communication sometimes and also depends heavily on the context. A kid whose late because they're a young carer, or because their parents made them do x, in the morning or were shouting or refused to take them, or because they're essentially parents for their siblings, which yes they shouldn't be but isn't their fault. All of these are more common than we think, what's the point in giving a detention to a kid whose a young carer and gets in late, that's different to someone not bothering (but why are they not bothering should still be figured out, they could be struggling etc), in my area sometimes kids would be stopped and searched by police unfairly and were shaken by the time they got into school. Or a kid who can't buy new trainers for weeks because that's genuinely not possible right now for their family. What's the point in giving them a detention every day, maybe try and see if there's any extra support or benefits you can help them apply for, they may not know it exists or other things that are much more helpful than a detention which the majority of the time is an unproductive method of correcting behaviour.

Her methods unnecessarily strip individuality and personality, all schools do to a certain extent (though more are allowing different hair colours and a sensible amount of jewellery etc). I mean most workplaces (unless healthcare, factories that soft of thing) have moved on from strict dress codes and are very casual in the office, and whilst more formal with clients, not as formal as before. The workplace is adapting and changing, and whilst I think uniform isn't a bad thing, I don't think you need branded logos on it, and definitely not on everything like a branded bag or trousers or skirts. A blazer and tie is fine and then parents should be able to buy everything else from any store. Yes more schools have second-hand uniform, but not all, and many families still struggle with things like P.E kit and trip costs and sport events.

@MrsEmmelineLucas I wasn't questioning your judgement of a school, I was generalising on what I think the stereotypes or public perception of them is. It wasn't directed to you, or your experience but just how the media etc and perception is that the stricter a school the better or the best measure of a school's performance is grades and grades only.

Every class will have SEND kids in them, undiagnosed or diagnosed, and actually,
when we use methods that work for them it also helps everyone else. The issue with her pawning SEN kids off @Drfosters is because it's not like these kids have high needs which require a special school, or that the schools they recommend to parents havea better provision or staff, it's still the basic provision of any state school. The issue is that it's unfair on the other schools because they'll have an intake including SEN, MH issues and more which they're dealing with, and everyone across the area essentially shares the load, by her not keeping a similar amount, she's overburdening them, and making it easier for her and her staff. Also she has a much bigger budget than most schools, she gets lots of sponsers and donors, so she has way more money than theaverage school and many manage to divert budget into SEN because they should and SENchildren also have lots of potential, by giving them the reasonable adjustments and support they need, I know kids who have teachers with SEN who shout about it, because it changes the perceptions of what they can and can't do, or they shouldn't be here with x because I have kids with instant potential that deserve better, that will trickle down across the school. I think hearing some of Jamie Oluver's recent interviews and books shows the impact of such attitudes (not saying her school is direct like that but with their punitive approach undiagnosed childrenlikely struggle and internalise that, sometimes for life) and how it really impacted his selfworth and ambitions for a long time.

They also likely be many undiagnosed kids and by reducing the SEN training the have, under emphasising the importance of it for staff, having SEN students around to show that and to have inclusion (not just SEN but also a varied diverse curriculum, good personal development with different ways of assesment or opportunities for children who may struggle but excel at drama and shouldn't feel that it's a stupid or 'mickey mouse" subject.

You can say that such students shouldn't go there, but to be honest, primary provision for such areas are bad or nonexistent and having at least the 3 years in such subjects is positive for everyone and also let's kids have more time to see their strengths or passion,or be introduced to different things.

This is from a committee in parliament, some of it talks about her school:
Edward Miliband warned that schools adopting the “Michaela approach” may find that “children with autism and other more complex needs do not thrive” under such rigidity; he noted parents often feel forced to remove these children because of mental‑health struggles or the school’s pressure.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/%E2%80%8CCommons/2025-01-08/debates/656F7D15-EA9D-46EA-8D8A-795738402CE9/Children%E2%80%99SWellbeingAndSchoolsBill#:~:text=My%20experience%20of%20tackling%20educational,or%20because%20the%20school%20forces

Again some words from the deputy head: There is no escape. There is no doubt. There is no ‘stress’.

A Brent NEU official has now claimed Birbalsingh is “anti-union”, with membership discouraged among staff. Several members have come forward to the union with workplace issues, Byline Times has been told, but claim they do not feel comfortable setting up a union branch in the school, according to the NEU figure. Birbalsingh’s claims that teachers must always be backed when faced with allegations of bullying or racism from children, has raised alarm bells among equality groups and some educators.

Yes, you make some good points, @TheLivelyViper , especially about free school meals. I think that should be mandatory everywhere.

I think a lot of secondaries have mad rules in place now about uniforms, she’s not alone there. Although I am personally not a fan of the skirts hitched up beyond the knickers look which seems prevalent at the moment.

But they do do music (maybe not to gcse, I don’t know) and other arts subjects, I’ve just had a look at the ofsted report.

And I think unless it is made public the quantity of leavers each year, and why, it’s just impossible to speculate. Which is why I think that should be made public in some way without identifying the children.

But looking sole At exam results, which are important to most parents, children and employers/universities, they’re doing better by far than any other non selective state schools and lots of independents too. Which is interesting.

But have your personally interviewed the children who have left and checked what degrees they have got and what jobs they have gone on to? This is all just heresy that the children aren’t able to stand up for themselves and aren’t assertive. You say the children are lacking In Other areas- what specifically? Can you explain based on real children who have left and what specific problems they have had. This all just sounds anecdotal to me. My impression on results day when the children open their results are a bunch of well mannered and very happy teenagers who have an immensely bright future ahead of them. If I saw a CV of a child who went to Michaela land on my desk I’d definitely want to interview them.

Exactly this. It's the Stanford experiment. Children who can delay gratification succeed better in life. They learn self management and resilience. "I am the captain of my ship, I am the master of my soul".

I have changed my mind on Michaela over the years.
Totally wrong for my kids I thought, both did and enjoyed subjects not on her list and enjoyed the enrichment these subjects brought with them.
However, the Ofsted "good" school my kids attended was rife with behaviour problems. This manifested itself by DS2 getting endless behaviour points for not wearing blazer/shirt not tucked in, while coming home and telling me about fights and exclusions and kids who seemed to spend most of their time in internal exclusion. So the whole thing managed to wind me up (with the uniform infringements) while not really making me feel like my child was safe in school.

If my kids were accepted and happy in a Michaela environment, I'd be thrilled. Good GCSEs and plenty of time to make life decisions later on.

The grades can surley be made public as many schools do that. I know Brampton Manor does that, though there's tend to consistently he A/A*. I wouldn't say I'm an advocate for non-uniform completely but definitely more relaxed and modern rules, which reflect the times and aren't overly arbitrary and more about control than anything else. A different colour of hair, or painted nails, or two earning studs (as long as its health and safety) won't have ant impact on your learning or anything else, schools can have a community and individuality at the same time.

About the music and drama and creative subjects - the new Schools bill and Curriculum and Assessment review will make the hours a school does some of those subjects compulsory not just guidance including for free schools and academies. So she did day that she sets the hours for said subjects (I think only up to Y8, but I could be wrong) based on how much she values them, and that creative subjects aren't as valuable. That's one of the reasons she's against it, schools will have to do more of creative subjects, work experience etc and the national curriculum must be followed but academies (not sure about free schools) can add on things, but have more to implement from it, than they currently have to.

I don't think that just because a kid went there, I'd want to interview them, I'm also not talking about every single child, but an overview - there's always some who are different but her philosophy on such issues speaks volumes about what they teach the children, which differs from mutal respect or challenging authority, all from the practices of the school and what she's said. Will every kid be like that, no, but I think lots will and many have reported as such. Just as I haven't spoken to each child and seen how

they interact you also haven't, so you don't have anymore evidence than me that it hasn'tled to them being like that. I also don't think those values being taught or instructed the way they are is helpful or positive.

I don't blame you, @LarkspurLane and all too common. A focus on what looks good for the school, without tackling the serious underlying problems, most usually bullying and persistent low level disruption.

No, I meant the reasons if and why children are leaving, or being ‘managed out’. The exam results (which are incredible) are widely known.

This seems to be the main issue on this thread for the school - and the reason people believe the grades are so good.

We can’t possibly know if this is the case unless these numbers are published, which would be tricky, for ethical reasons.

Edited to add this was in response to @TheLivelyViper

It’s really not difficult to tuck in a shirt or wear a blazer-which don’t you support the school in this? Parents who undermine simple school rules are a big part of the problems in schools now.

Parents are the reason I would not want to be in teaching now. (I did a PGCE in the 1980s and decided, after teaching practice in Tottenham, that I wasn't cut out for crowd control.) DD used to be outraged at the school rule that forbid the wearing of outdoor coats in class. She thought the rule was stupid. I agreed with her but said it was nonetheless the rule so she must follow it. A small example but it illustrated the potential for parents to make life difficult for teachers.

It's constant, @IdaGlossop . About punctuality "you should start school later", disrupting learning "he was just standing up for himself" homework "no point" arguing with staff "the teachers are wrong"... it's constant and it's endless.

That is one narrow curriculum - they don't even have comp sci do they? And all the extra curriculars mostly just sound like more lessons! The sixth form is selective too according to the website.

I don't understand how they do so few subjects when they start every day at 7;55am! And then they're expected to do hours of homework after school too. No wonder they get good results.

I think this school sounds like a very sad place, I agree they are just drilled to pass exams and that's all it's about - an exam factory to get you to uni. Does anyone have a personality there? Is that allowed? I feel like they're just making robots.

DS got all 8's and 9's in 10 subjects at gcse without the need for any of this craziness, it just sounds awful to me.

Awful for teachers and disruptive for pupils doing the right thing most of the time because they have sensible parents. I do not envy you @MrsEmmelineLucas. The only technique I have needed in my subsequent career with adults has been to stand silently at the front of the room. After two minutes at the most, everyone shuts up.

Mercia's pitch to prospective teachers, as you probably know, is that discipline is taken care of so teachers can teach. The most extreme example I can think of of offspring being able to do no wrong is the mafioso mothers of the 1980s whose sons had been found guilty of murder but who nonetheless sobbed on news bulletins that their sons would never harm a fly.

When DD was in Y6, I had a call from school telling me she had been involved in a racist incident. (We are white.) Immediately, I started wondering where we had gone wrong and began planning to invite the wronged pupil and family to our house so DD could understand what she had done and apologise. But DD was the victim of the racism (a black, male pupil was rapping 'white girls are easy' to her and a white friend in the yard before school). Although I was sorry to have doubted DD, I was relieved to have been given an opportunity to discover I was not a mafioso mother.