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

SmileEachDay

I often think this. Many of the parents who argued most vociferously for their children’s ‘rights’ to disrupt learning were financially secure. Their children had tutors. I remember sitting one boy down when he was backing up his friend in his (dreadful) behaviour, and I asked him: “Do you understand that when you validate X in his disrespectful behaviour, you are actually limiting his life chances? Your parents have hired you tutors in Maths, English and Science. You are going to pass your GCSEs. Stop standing in the way of him passing his, by encouraging his behaviour.”

Yes, he was mortified.

Hercule if you're a teacher you will know that not all additional needs would break the rules of Michaela. The girl with the hearing aids who needs to sit at the front and have subtitles on videos. The dyslexic boy who needs some printed notes and the chance to use a laptop. The pupil who uses a wheelchair who needs lift access. All could be fine following the rules. Some children with ASD may thrive on the routine. The child with ADHD probably not so much. But the boy with the verbal tics is merely background noise others would be used to if they had the chance to be, however would clearly fall foul of any silence rule. You are looking at the question of how we deal with SEN in mainstream as a whole, I'm trying to focus on the impact of rules without reasonable adjustments on an individual. Not all adjustments have to impact on the other pupils, and if people imagine they do it makes SEN into a homogenous lump of a problem.

Rainuntilseptember

I do know, and the proportion of students with SEN at the school is in line with the average.

OK, I'll bite... how is teaching a bad aspiration?

I certainly was not funnelled into teaching.

Rain

Are you suggesting Michaela are picking and choosing their SEN children?

Because that’s a big accusation.

children are being turned ino to little conforming robots

No they aren't. Teachers are working fucking hard doing trying to teach and equip many children with the skills they need to succeed in life in a society, including often their parents, that devalues education and qualifications.

@herculepoirot2 on a different note, this is possibly the only,thread ever where I've agreed with every word you've said.

@herculepoirot2 on a different note, this is possibly the only,thread ever where I've agreed with every word you've said.

I’d say thank you but I am not certain it’s that complimentary. 😂

Well my question is how do they enforce their strict rules and zero tolerance policies? Couldn't other schools do the same with their own rules?

@Oliversmumsarmy - I guess it depends how risk averse people are. I do think people who set up Businesses are very brave as there are so many variables and a fair amount of risk. Some people have done both - worked for big companies and then gone off to set up start-ups. I guess it’s good to be able to be flexible and pick up the ability to learn new skills quickly.

I will be keeping a weather eye on how Michaela goes down in white working class Stevenage.

It didn’t go down especially well in Great Yarmouth, Piggy tbh and Charter school are being cagey about their GCSE results this year.

A teacher on a drama forum I’m on has just commented that her school takes many of the kids Michaela kicks out, and they are great kids.

Both my children would hate it there as due to their asd they cannot make eye contact. Dd (a high achiever) has learnt to fake it following years of drama training. Ds cannot yet. Dd has had days when we senses have been so heightened that everything itches and the only thing that grounds her and enables her to function is to use a repetitive action fidget toy. Ds would love the corridors etc but sensory issues means he has a very limited diet and he would rather starve than eat unsafe foods. His previous school he had no concentration in the afternoons due to hunger.

Both children have big organisational issues and Ds needs to move and fidget a lot.

Interesting noble because , these days, I only hear good stuff about the GYCS. Mainly from them, mind, and their cronies/ supports (delete as applicable!)

Well here’s what they said about their results, piggy, and compare to the detail Michaela are throwing out!

www.inspirationtrust.org/greatyarmouthcharter/news/great-yarmouth-charter-academy-goes-from-strength-to-strength

I think you probably follow the same people on twitter as me. Lots going there on ‘visits’ and being ‘blown away’ by the transformation.

@Rainuntilseptember - but how do you know other kids would all find it easy to get used to the verbal tics? It might encourage some with poor concentration to also make noises, scratch, fidget. If someone else says they find it easier to concentrate by tapping their foot, or use a fidget spinner, you get the volume starting to rise... some kids chance it and start talking to friends but you don’t know exactly where the noise is coming from.... would someone with a verbal tic be allowed in the same room as other kids for public exams?

I guess you could say someone requires a diagnosis from a educational/medical professional to be exempted, which might provide a balance. But there can be an element of zero sum in it. It is an interesting question...

In a way it is sad that it takes draconian policies to get an appropriate environment for kids to learn.

many of the kids Michaela kicks out

I’m sure this was asked on twitter and they said they’d not expelled many kids (if any, can’t remember exactly, but it was v low).

Does the teacher mean kids who leave because they can’t hack it?

Sounds like there’s a lot of overlap with mine.

Looking at Barry Smith’s twitter feed, I think GYCA’s results are 37% 5+ in english + maths. But that’s about all I can see they’ve released.

Do schools 'encourage a move' rather than expelling a pupil? The latter is fairly difficult to do legally and is not always in the best interests of the pupil. A school could do a lot in encouraging a parent to move their child elsewhere.

Our DS who is 7 was "encouraged to move" after he was deemed "at risk of exclusion" (he'd never had a temporary exclusion).

Michaela’s ofsted report states that fewer than average children leave partway through.

Charter got 56% 9-4 including E and M.

Where’s that from, Smile? Local press says ‘At Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, 56pc of students achieved a passing grade.‘ which as we know can mean anything!

Dd went to a “bog standard” comp. with fairly shocking gcse results. Only 36% of kids get 5x GCSEs at a-c. i would term the school “rough” for want of a better term. The stuff that went on in the classroom horrified me.

Teachers walked out in tears and never came back. Dd had 7x English teachers in year 10, one of whom collapsed on the floor weeping and another didn’t turn up for a lesson and wrote a message to the kids in the board telling them they’d given her a nervous break down!

Dd wanted to learn but from what she said the teachers spent 80% of class time on crowd control.

She moved to a different school for sixth form, one which has a reputation for the staff being strict. She said the difference in behaviour was massive. Fair enough these were now sixth formers but when she told her new classmates of some of the stuff which happened at her old school they couldn’t believe it and said any kid at their school who did that would have been expelled. That school has 99% of kids passing 5x at A-c.

noble

www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/education/students-celebrates-gcse-results-in-great-yarmouth-acle-gorleston-caister-1-6229917

From this - if you click the little dot indicating the school it tells you.

(You need to scroll down to the map)

VivaLeBeaver

That is just wrong.