To not understand why Katharine Birbalsingh is so controversial

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Just that. Am I being unreasonable in thinking the results she achieves at her school and start in life her students get which they likely otherwise wouldn't - is something to be celebrated and perhaps we should look to what's going wrong in schools which face the the same socioeconomic challenges but get far poorer results. Surely I'm not being unreasonable to wonder this.

She should be congratulated. Teacher retention would also be improved if classrooms were orderly and they could spend their time doing what they were trained to do.

Well she definitely does some things which improve measured outcomes that much is obvious yes.

White British constitute 16% of Brent population.

Other White make 9.1% of Michaela intake - the Poles are Catholics and have no problem with discipline and hard work.

That's probably what you need to know.

Interestingly she talks about how the 'protestors' who stood outside the school and disrupted parent meetings to object to the school being created when she was setting up the school, were all white middle class parents from out of area.

Disrupting the meeting for the ethnic minority parents who wanted this type of school in their area.

The average class size in years 7 - 10 is 33, in year 11 it’s 29, suggesting they might be offloading the no-hopers before GCSEs.

In year 12 there are 66 students and in year 13 there are 52, so again a fall in exams year. That seems quite a large percentage drop.

@Ubertomusic. I spent five years living in Kilburn at the heart of the mighty borough of Brent, so I'm pretty well acquainted with it.

But thanks awfully for telling me what you think I need to know.

They were probably some of the outraged posters from this thread 😂

With "My child must do drama" placards.

(But your child doesn't have to come to this school, so calm down madam.)

Or " She talks to academics I don't like'" placards.

(Oh JBP? we think he's great.)

Do you see the problem yet....?

The figures show Katharine Birbalsingh is head teacher of a small school in north London.
She makes a big noise though.

You still can't explain where you would get more "White British" (I presume you mean English) pupils for the school if there are not so many of them living in the borough 🤷‍♀️

Kilburn have pockets of multi-million houses of artsy type families, they would never ever apply to Michaela. They count as "White British" or "White Other" in the borough stats but they're not working class and they are never going to improve Michaela's "racial mix" (tbf I find it hilarious that you call Michaela "less ethnically diverse than neighbouring schools" 😂 ).

White do-gooders know better where people of colour should go! 😁

This is all shocking and embarrassing, frankly.

@Ubertomusic I understand what you mean now : ) The distinction between white British and white Eastern Europe is very important. It's why I was careful to refer to white British in previous posts.

It would be good if the approach was replicated more widely we'd then start to see the barriers in different areas and factors which can be replicated.

I'd be interested to find out more about SEND in the school. As she says their approaches meet needs which I can see for some SEND pupils who would thrive on the calm environment but there are others who do just need something different, do they adaptwhen needed? I wonder if they just don't opt for this school or get managed out? Like many successful high performance secondary schools tbh.

There are many unexamined questions about Michaela but given the known facts about it's fantastic outcomes you'd think they'd be huge curiosity instead of the angry resistance for spurious reasons like who she speaks to.

Nothing's wrong with Jordan Peterson. Controversial view on Mumsnet but still true.

Did anyone actually explain why Jordan Peterson is so terrible? I read the first four pages but "JP is awful" seemed to be stated as an established truth, but no-one explained why.

Of course you were thinking about the English 😁 The naturalised Poles can chose to tick the box "White British", y'know 😉

I don't think there are many "English working class" families in Brent anyway. I know the statistics re. White boys you were referring to but I'm not sure it's geographically relevant in this case.

A former archbishop didn't rate his book was as far as we got.

They don't like his diet! 😂

I always wonder why he's so frowned upon. He's a respected professor of Clinical Psychology who's put up an incredible defence of children being brainwashed by the trans lobby and multilated by unethical surgeons.

Does anyone know what the teacher retention is like at Michaela ?

Big JBP fan but the diet definitely questionable 🤔 😅

I’m an ex teacher. I don’t know anyone who left because of behaviour. Many recognise it’s getting worse, but that’s not their reason to leave. It’s paperwork, unrealistic expectations and management.

How was it? They weren’t asking for a prayer room, just to be allowed to pray. How would you feel if she told a Christian student they couldn’t pray on school grounds?

They can’t at Michaela. I was trained to adapt materials for each class and to try to engage through relationships. Michaela is so prescriptive those things are t possible.

Engage through relationships is a terrible way to teach secondary school subjects.

It's one of the biggest cons in education currently.

The relationship in the classroom is teacher pupil following the explicit rules and expectations for both.

What they do at Michaela which I think is brilliant for relationships is family style eating teachers and pupils every day. That's when you engage through relationships.

Also materials shouldn't need adapting for every class if a clear scheme of work is being followed this should be built in.

I'm a practicing Christian and I would feel the same. If you want to pray during the school day, go to a religious school or a school that provides prayer rooms, there should be no problem with that. Encouraging other pupils to pray is proselytism, children go to school to study not to preach to others.