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

Back to the 40’s,50’s,60’s comments. Children with SEN would most likely have been institutionalized and not in normal schools regardless of how many streams. Special schools for the deaf/blind and locked down setting for childhood schizophrenia (autism).

I understand parents kicking off needs a tough line but if it is something like a homework jotter not being signed then it seems wrong to punish the child.

I am not sure. It’s an assertion that what the school is doing is educating the child on behalf of the parents, and if the parents aren’t meeting their responsibility, they are breaching a contract of sorts.

I would support this approach being put in place more widely.

I would support this approach being put in place more widely.

**

My usual hat is like Swiss cheese. 😂

wow and society questions why so many are turning to or choosing home education

children are being turned ino to little conforming robots

He was particularly impressed with the ' no marking ' idea. Well a different approach to marking

Their marking policy is fab. It’s one of the reasons staff can teach lessons that are so finely tuned to the children in front of them.

children are being turned ino to little conforming robots

It is a sad state of affairs when behaving properly at school so you can learn is said to be “robotic”.

children are being turned ino to little conforming robots

Can you explain what you mean by this?

Can someone show me a non selective school ( either financially selective, fees or house prices, or academically selective) with strong Progress 8 scores which doesn’t have extremely rigourous behaviour policies and expectations?

The children at Michaela are in no way 'robotic.' Why would you say that? They are happy, conforming young people who are getting an excellent education.

It makes me quite angry when people bring up SEN in order to excuse poor discipline and structure.

It is the disadvantaged and SEN who benefit greatly from a more structured environment. It is the opposite of less inclusive. I think it is permissive middle class nonsense to think through rose coloured spectacles

• thinking that allowing poor kids to be late and unruly, or SEN kids to be able to scream when they like - is going to help them. It is not.
• more structure and calm = a more level playing field for all.

The kid who is unruly for example, maybe a chaotic home, finally has somewhere where everyone is treated fairly, things are clear, good behaviour is rewarded. They have a chance.

SEN schools have more clarity about rules than most mainstream ones. Why? Because the kids need much clearer and simpler directions. So silent on the corridors is very clear. Many Sen kids have sensory issues that mean the noise and chaos is awful, and people are encouraged to be much quieter.

Thinking about it, I live in an area high on the deprivation index, and the expectations of the kids in local secondaries are ridiculously low, and of course they live up (down?) to those expectations. Who’s to say that the Michaela model wouldn’t work here? And honestly from what I’ve seen of behaviour in corridors etc, I do wonder if silence (however draconian that might seem) could well be preferable.

Corridor behaviour is shocking. I work in a slightly positive progress 8, affluent leafy suburb school. Low level disruption is low in lessons.

The corridors are like the Wild West.

SEN schools have more clarity about rules than most mainstream ones.
But yet they are able to change them if a child can't cope with them.
This school sounds totally unable to be flexible; unless anyone has evidence to the contrary.

This school sounds totally unable to be flexible; unless anyone has evidence to the contrary.

I agree with you that they aren’t flexible.

This school sounds totally unable to be flexible; unless anyone has evidence to the contrary

The fact the ofsted report says that SEN pupils make progress on a par with peers suggests that they are being given what they need in order to flourish.

The Michaela attitude to SEN is that people are not defined by what they can’t do, rather they build on strengths and scaffold and support.

How many threads are there on Mumsnet about teenagers' poor behaviour? I cannot help thinking that much of it is down to a lack of discipline and boundaries in early years

My daughter certainly had discipline (very loving but firm) in her early years but was still a nightmares for a few years as a teenager. Not at school; but at home.

Molto How high is strong?

Our school has a positive progress 8 (0.38 I think)

Very mixed area. Above average % of English not as first language, FSM and SEN. No selection by the 'back door.'

My daughter certainly had discipline (very loving but firm) in her early years but was still a nightmares for a few years as a teenager. Not at school; but at home.
So, she could behave herself at school?

DD and ds (both dyslexic) would not have faired well in this school.

Ds has ADHD and and DD has ADD.
DD went to a specialised private school with a really laid back approach. She came out with a handful of GCSEs all grade Cs and the confidence to set herself up in business.

GCSE, A levels and a degree are great but they are not the be all and end all of getting on in life and I feel that making them the only route out of poverty for children is still going to enforce the haves from the have nots because you are training children for the job market and not giving them the thought that they could be the company owner rather than the worker.

It doesn't matter how high up the corporate ladder you go you are still on a set salary and someone else is in charge of whether you work next week or you get laid off.

I think it does a disservice to the children who go to this school that there is this funnelling of children into office jobs or teaching.

A) Accept that his needs come first and withdraw the rule about silence
B) Put the rule in place but allow an exemption for him
C) Give him suitable alternatives for schooling
Hercule if you would choose any option other than b you would be an arse. How are we preparing children for life in our society if we teach them that some members of that society should be kept away from them, because they might make a few involuntary noises ? Fgs.

Hercule if you would choose any option other than b you would be an arse. How are we preparing children for life in our society if we teach them that some members of that society should be kept away from them, because they might make a few involuntary noises ? Fgs.

An arse? I see.

I know that’s how some people here see the issue. I don’t see it like that. If there are, on average, 10-15% of students in any school environment with additional needs, the number of exemptions any “not an arse” person would naturally put in place renders the rules meaningless. I have no problem with this other than the effect it has on the other 85-90%.

I think it does a disservice to the children who go to this school that there is this funnelling of children into office jobs or teaching
The children at Michaela are as yet too young to have chosen their career. They have only just received their GCSE results. It is simply untrue to say that they are being 'funnelled into office jobs or teaching!'

I think it does a disservice to the children who go to this school that there is this funnelling of children into office jobs or teaching

By whom? How?

I wonder if the people who are judging Michaela harshly (based on little information) really understand how lack of aspiration negatively impacts on outcomes - and I mean outcomes in the broadest possible sense.

I teach so many children who don’t think they “can” achieve. Who think they won’t amount to much, so why bother. Who will settle for shit grades because they have no sense that they have potential.

They shrink their own world when they feel like this. They don’t have the options that children who get decent grades have.

Michaela is relentless in having aspirations for every child, and working with their cohort so they believe it too.