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

It was the first time she didn’t smile at us when I asked that question and she side stepped it by mentioning the next lot of visitors needed to be attended to (hence it felt like a conveyer belt of visitors with set ‘tour’). It left us with an uneasy feeling but couldn’t quite put our finger on exactly what went wrong!

Interesting thread. Coming on here late and I see the topic has moved on. My DC is starting a new school in our city this September with some very similar “michaela-esque” rules. Quiet corridors, family lunch, discussing certain topics over lunch, moderately organised lunch breaks and quiet learning. It’s not been done before here and I’m quite happy with the rules. I remember how crap lunch times and moving between classes was when I was in school in the 90’s. As for children with SN, I think this type of environment is better, where lunch times are organised so no one is alone or vulnerable to bullying.

BBC video promoting Michaela here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/education-49430077/it-s-good-to-have-rules-children-know-where-they-stand

The head says that kids will always be rebellious so you want them to rebel by pulling their tie down or being a bit silly, not by carrying knives.

Thanks for the Charter results Smile

So it looks like they got pretty much the same results as the previous year despite the kids having had an extra year of the Charter experience. That’s not going to look great on a graph.

herculepoirot2 I think 16 year olds have a better life chance if they are made aware that they can do a wide range of careers.

That there are alternatives to A levels and university

I get the feeling that the head looks down on careers that don't fall into her narrow brief. I would be interested to hear what their careers advice is.

I think she'd disagree. What she wants for her pupils is the ability to CHOOSE what they want to do, and have any door open to them by virtue of having GCSEs that'll open the door to whatever they want to pursue.

Oliversmumsarmy

I hope they do careers advice as well. I have no problem with aspiration, though.

How can a school fully advise on careers when there is huge areas of the curriculum that the school dismisses.

I have never come across a school that didn't teach IT or Drama or have some sort of D&T or PHSE or some form of Home economics eg, needlework, cookery carpentry etc

I can see that space is at a premium but not covering topics like these is cutting out areas where being exposed to learning subjects which are more practical might give an alternative to the standard GCSE A level route.

I know the college where ds learns a more practical subject which is a 2 year course if you wait till after A levels to decide to try the course you have to pay for you 2nd year.

But it’s not a given they’ll be waiting until after a-level. The results they’ve given are 9-4 pass rates. I’m sure there will be pupils who’ve got 4s and 5s as well as those with 8s and 9s. The former probably aren’t going to be going on to do Alevels anywhere. They’ll likely be doing vocational quals/apprenticeships. A set of 4/5s at GCSE isn’t going to harm their chances of becoming a hair dresser/mechanic/plumber/hca/nursery nurse at all.

I can well believe that question made her uncomfortable Chloe. Given the amount of emphasis they’ve put on being anti gaming/tech recently. The lack of comp sci will put a lot of people off applying.

If you are bright and not from a very rich home then being given serious facilitating subject A levels which are hard which will get you into the best universities and not being side tracked by BTECs or cookery exams is a brilliant way to achieve social mobility and the parents choosing this school know it.

Facilitating subjects have been scrapped by Russell Group (and they were only a Russell Group ideal). The fact you say ‘cookery exams’ and ‘BTECs’ as the only alternative, shows how little/narrow your mindset is. It was harder to get an A or A* in Computer Science A Level and a 9-7 in GCSE this year, than it was in Maths or Physics, for example, with longer exams (2 hours). And this is a subject that was top 3 in earning power from any university in 2018. That’s why I would be intrigued to see how Michaela would actually fare in a subject like that, with the same curriculum time as any other school, but they seemed reluctant to answer.

I’m torn on this, but I think the intent is kindness, not cruelty. A girl in my last school lost a parent, and from that moment on, it was the excuse for everything. No homework? Her mum died. Disrupting others in class? Her mum died? Called the teacher a cunt? Her mum died
However much compassion I have for her, she is now a school leaver with no mum AND and no GCSEs. In trying to be kind, the people responsible for her education let her down
As someone whose dh died suddenly last year, I agree with this. My children didn't become disruptive or rude afterwards and I wouldn't have expected them to get away with it if they had. I'm not sure my teen dd even missed any homework as she preferred to just carry on, but I think I'd have been pretty annoyed if she'd been given detentions in the first few weeks like the Scruton No Excuses chap in the link advocates though. You are in shock for the first couple of weeks. Maybe after a month or so.

Meant to say if she'd been given detentions for missing homework in the first few weeks like the Scruton No Excuses chap in the link advocates

I think we will see a lot more Micheala style schooling in light of their results. If they can get 4x the national average with the students they took as their first in take then there will be a lot of heads looking at how to do they same.

I know the yours of the school are incredibly popular and quite few heads are already gearing up to go this way.

One thing I would say is that people focus on the rules but don’t really ever discuss what they do with the curriculum, which is what I think is the most brilliant part. And their approach to marking fosters lots more independence. It is worth reading about as these are the two things I think schools will be implementing fairly soon.

Xenia this is what I was trying to say. If you are from a poor or disadvantaged family everyone thinks the only way out is to work hard in dreary subjects and go to university and saddle yourself with more debt that you will probably never pay off.

Why not offer Btecs in subjects that will get them out earning sooner rather than later in careers that will probably out earn what they will earn with a university degree.

I have 2 children who would not have fared well in this school. I have said they can do anything they want. DD at 19 is doing well having been working for the past 2 years and has a daily rate of £100-£500 per day
Depending on the job. Ds is about to do his NVQ and will be subsidising his salary with his other career. None of the subjects are on the curriculum at Michaels.

If you are from a poor or disadvantaged family everyone thinks the only way out is to work hard in dreary subjects and go to university and saddle yourself with more debt that you will probably never pay off.

Fair enough: with this attitude to any form of academic learning, it’s probably best you don’t send your child to a school like this. But History, Maths, Physics, English Lit, Law, Psychology - dreary? Really? How sad.

@Oliversmumsarmy

Because there is no funding for these courses. Micheal Gove decided when he was education secretary that there need to be more focus on academic subjects- hence the introduction of EBACC.

There is no enthusiasm amongst the bigwigs at the DfES to push vocational subjects. Colleges have had their funding cut to the bone and can mostly no longer offer school outreach for GCSE kids to do the BTEC courses.

It sucks.

@LavenderAndBeeswax My dad died when I was in Year 5 and my mum came down on me very hard for using his death as an excuse to be a shitbag. He wouldn't have liked it either.

BelleSausage

But other schools manage to do IT, PHSE and Drama.

What I am trying to point out is even on here there is this outlook that if you.are poor you need to go to university otherwise you doomed to never get out of poverty.

Being poor or disadvantaged pupil

Being poor or disadvantaged doesn't suddenly make you with hard work an academic.
What about those that aren't academic or those that are just bored stiff of History French and English Literature etc

Why not introduce the idea of more practical careers. DDS school finished at 16 and it was great that it helped each child get onto the next step whether that be academic A levels or Dance, Drama or BTec courses or just leaving school and starting work.

Other schools seem to only talk about A levels and university.

I wonder if a pupil at Michaela announced they wanted to do hairdressing or plumbing what the reaction would be.

But other schools manage to do IT, PHSE and Drama.

Yes and by not including those subjects, there is more time allocated to the ones they do offer, which in turn helps their results...

Yes and by not including those subjects, there is more time allocated to the ones they do offer, which in turn helps their results...

Well that kind of sums up the current education policy and quite frankly it is shit.

But we are talking about a government who wants everyone to do better than average, so I am not sure their view is actually correct.

(NB - I am not ranting at you, just the government)

The sixth form seems pretty selective:
Written entrance exam
Interview
7 grade 7+ GCSEs

So by that definition the school only did well because it has such a limited curriculum not because it is an amazing school with fantastic teaching methods.

So by that definition the school only did well because it has such a limited curriculum not because it is an amazing school with fantastic teaching methods.

I don’t think it is the only reason but I do think it is a factor that they don’t want to admit to having. And judging by their Sixth Form entry requirements, I don’t think their A Level results in two years will be all that fair. I mean, our local grammar schools don’t even have requirements that high!