Michaela School and behaviour - AIBU

[herculepoirot2]

AIBU to think that you might read this behaviour policy and think it is authoritarian and unnecessary, but to also think that, with results four times better than the national average, these people might have a point about the benefits to young people of being expected to work hard and behave well?

mcsbrent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Behaviour-Policy-11.02.19.pdf

Lots of posters say, 'but it won't work for SEN children,' or 'what do you do with children who can't sit still' etc, but Michaela does manage these children effectively

As it only has 0.4% children with EHCPs, I don't see how that claim can possibly be made.

to link it to Michaela is a slur.

I didn't.

As it only has 0.4% children with EHCPs, I don't see how that claim can possibly be made.

It has an average proportion of children with SEN. Since children with EHCPs are entitled to go to the school that best meets their needs, this statistic is probably indicative of a belief that the school isn’t best suited to those children, but it isn’t indicative of how well they meet the needs of the children they have with SEN.

I didn't

Oh okay, sorry.

Having 360 children in a school built for a full school roll plus a high staff/pupil ratio will provide a quieter environment than 1500+ children no matter what policies you operate.

Having 360 children in a school built for a full school roll plus a high staff/pupil ratio will provide a quieter environment than 1500+ children no matter what policies you operate.

But it won’t achieve silent classroom transitions, or one voice in the classroom. Their rules achieve these things, even if the numbers make the rules easier to enforce.

Since children with EHCPs are entitled to go to the school that best meets their needs, this statistic is probably indicative of a belief that the school isn’t best suited to those children, but it isn’t indicative of how well they meet the needs of the children they have with SEN.

That's not what the law says. Children with EHCPs must go to schools that meet their needs, but there parents aren't entitled to placements at the schools that "best" meet their needs. Further, if parents of children with EHCPs prefer a mainstream place (including mainstream academies) then their preference must be met unless placing the child there will be incompatible with the efficient education of other pupils and there are no reasonable steps that can be taken to overcome the incompatibility.

So there are are major questions around why that statistic is so low. At the time covered by those statistics, it looks like in practice they had, at most, two children with EHCPs. As you have pointed out, for some children with EHCPs the Michaela régime sounds good. Also, putting a child with serious SEN into a newish school tends to be very attractive anyway because it will be very small when the child arrives and they will have time to get used to it as it grows. So it seems likely that quite a lot of parents of children with EHCPs put Michaela down as their first preference but don't get places there. Alternatively, they do get places but their children end up leaving. What's going on there?

Further, Michaela isn't apparently putting forward children for EHCPs or supporting parents who do so at anything like the same rates as other comparable schools. I'm sure people will claim that that is because it's wonderful, but you have to wonder whether it's to do with not wanting local authority oversight and having to comply with the requirements for special educational support in the EHCP when they doesn't fit conveniently into their system. Or whether, again, they simply ease the EHCP candidates out before they have to meet their needs properly and make those inconvenient reasonable adjustments.

You must be being disingenuous if you don't claim to know how schools in the recent past managed students with SEN that could potentially disrupt a class
Where did I say that? I once taught the tenth stream out of an eleven stream secondary modern school, where there must have been a good proportion of SEN children, although they were not labelled as such in those days. There were very few discipline problems, and this was in a rough area of South Yorkshire. I am making the point that a lot of behaviour in today's society has spiralled out of control, mainly due to a lack of discipline, and that Michaela has got it right.

So it seems likely that quite a lot of parents of children with EHCPs put Michaela down as their first preference but don't get places there. Alternatively, they do get places but their children end up leaving. What's going on there?

I find that highly unlikely. I find it more likely that they aren’t applying because the school has a reputation for strictness.

Further, Michaela isn't apparently putting forward children for EHCPs or supporting parents who do so at anything like the same rates as other comparable schools. I'm sure people will claim that that is because it's wonderful, but you have to wonder whether it's to do with not wanting local authority oversight and having to comply with the requirements for special educational support in the EHCP when they doesn't fit conveniently into their system. Or whether, again, they simply ease the EHCP candidates out before they have to meet their needs properly and make those inconvenient reasonable adjustments.

Where’s your evidence for these conclusions?

Or may be even those children with an EHCP behave better in this kind of school so everyone wins from it.

My mother taught classes of 40 in the 40s and 50s in a very poor area of the NE. More parents supported the school in those days and children behaved better.

Exactly, Xenia.

*Or may be even those children with an EHCP behave better in this kind of school so everyone wins from it."

I'm presuming you didn't mean to imply that it was only the children with an EHCP that are badly behaved?

Many of us with children with a EHCP or AN have said this school and others like it, is not the environment that is right for their child. My DS struggles a lot in the classroom (mainly with sitting still) I spoke to Outwood (zero tolerance school) and their response was very disappointing. Our chosen school seems much more willing to put in place strategies. The results are fairly even (slightly better at school of choice)

I agree with others that have said some parents will be avoiding this school for their AN children.

Lots of children who need EHCPs only stop coping at secondary level. Unless Michaela also puts off those children from applying, you'd expect a similar proportion to other schools.
And "parents realise it won't suit their SEN child" is an appalling excuse. All mainstream schools should be inclusive of most children who can (roughly) follow the National Curriculum.
There are schools near us that have good and poor reputations for SEN. Clearly we won't send our DS to one with a poor reputation. That doesn't mean that school is more successful. Rather the opposite.

And "parents realise it won't suit their SEN child" is an appalling excuse. All mainstream schools should be inclusive of most children who can (roughly) follow the National Curriculum.

Even when those conditions don’t suit all the other children?

Michaela's sixth form website is interesting. On the day that The Times reports that BTecs are being taken up in many independent schools, Michaela offers none to its diverse intake. It also offers only a tiny range of A Levels , those which it says appeal most to Oxbridge, Cambridge and the Ivy League(!). It really does seem what KB thinks the only way to succeed is for all the students to have the same educational experiences and attainment pathways as she did.
Moreover, they clearly offer A Levels they either have teachers who can teach them, or they have decided are in favour : (disclaimer, I am not a fan of A Level snobbery!) so they have economics, philosophy and politics, none of which is on the outgoing facilitating subject list but, perhaps most bizarrely, don't offer geography! Oh, and only one language.

I also read in The Times today that the school doesn't offer drama at all, because KB has a low view of state school drama teachers!!

Honestly? When a law puts the rights of children with disabilities that mean they struggle with structure into direct conflict with the rights of children who need structure, there is something wrong, either with the law, or with the application of the law.
This
I live close to this school and it’s catchment are is mainly incredibly disadvantaged majority of the children come ethinic minority backgrounds many start primary school not speaking English there’s a housing estate nearby with a gang problem.
For all those saying they prefer less structure and their child is free spirited should consider themselves privileged as being a “free spirit” is not really an option when your poor and or black.
Education is the key to your future it worked for both myself my sisters and best friend.
I think both pupils and teachers at Michaela deserve a pat on the back.

For all those saying they prefer less structure and their child is free spirited..

That wasn't exactly what I said. My child is not 'free spirited' he has additional needs. Those needs should not be ignored and he made to conform. It is not the structure that is the issue as such, it is the way the structure is implemented that is.

As I have already mentioned I avoided a school on a similar vein, I am more than happy with my choice and as it stands so are my friends whose children went to an Outwood school.

I don’t think they even offer geography at gcse.

From what I can tell the ks3 curriculum is English, maths, science, re History, geography, art and music. I think they’ve upped the P.e. After the ofsted inspection, but it didn’t feature heavily in the first couple of years.

If you look at their curriculum page there’s no mention of geography after year 8.

Wow!

I do wonder whether they are setting up some of their charges to feel like failures in the sixth form if they don't gain access to their decreed list of universities, or indeed if they don't want to.

From what I can tell the ks3 curriculum is English, maths, science, re History, geography, art and music

I wonder what they offer at GCSE? Did all pupils do the same GCSEs?

They must do, or at least similar ones. I can’t see how you would get to 8 otherwise.

I'd never send my children to a school with draconian policies.
By the same token, they wouldn't go anywhere with a high SEN population.

A levels look fine. I did English history and German. They do French but not German but I could have equally have done english history and French. or english hitsory and economics. No geography is unusual but it is a decent set of mostly faciltating subjects either science or arts. My son did English history and gov/politics and they offer that. It seems perfectly good selection and the key is the chidren will not do A levels that hold them back later as they are not o offer.

You've still got children who come from a low starting point who suddenly get a lot of really high maths results. It does have implications for 'nature' vs 'nurture' in education

Which is perhaps why the school's ethos will never find favour in certain quarters Showing up low expectations for the betrayal they really are tends to lead to questioning of fashionable assumptions … and questioning isn't always welcome

I think there was a post on one of the education boards when the school first opened where the poster had looked at the 4 nearest primary schools to Michaela and found them all to be high achieving

I also know that area and have done for a very long time. The idea that Michaela is a sink school reborn as a massive success whilst taking in the same cohort is massively at odds with reality.

There are numerous filters and barriers to keep out the "wrong sort" (including some financial deterrents). Its no more non selective than schools such as the Oratory or Cardinal Vaughan who take a full spread of the ability range but have considerable social filters in place. Its a lot easier to show good results across the ability range when you do this.