To not understand why Katharine Birbalsingh is so controversial

[TemporaryPosition]

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.

I would feel the same if the Christian student was encouraging others to pray in the playground and thus fostering a potential divide between the more and less devout. Which is what was happening, it's just the student in question happened to be Muslim, not Christian.

It was creating division in the playground in a school which is explicitly secular.

If you want to pray go to a different school.

It's a secular school. I disagree with KB sometimes but she was dead right on this.

I work in a school where there is a prayer room. Children are bullied if they are not deemed suitably devout by their peers. This is magnified during religious occasions.

I don't blame her for wanting to try and avoid this sort of behaviour and foster friendships across religious and ethnic groups. As far as I can tell, she is quite successful in this area.

No. They still haven't

Also it was being provoked by a small group of Muslims in the community who threatened teachers and KB with death threats if they didn't allow open praying in the playground.

If she had lost the case the school would have had to close it couldn't have continued as a secular endeavour.

There are apparently more cases coming from this small Muslim community group. They want to intimidate her and close the school. (most Muslim parents are happy with the school.)

It is fascinating who is for and who is against this seemingly successful school...the groups against seem to be lefty middle class Guardian reading JBP hating women and devout Muslim men.
What do they have in common??

This isn’t related whether or not it’s a free school- the local authority, Brent, handle the admissions.

many free schools use local authorities admissions.

once you use local authority admissions you have no say whatsoever in your intake. It’s simply auto allocated on criteria. The headteacher knows nothing about the children offered places at her school

So who came to speak at Michaela to balance Jordan Peterson?

The other thread was not asking about why teachers were leaving teaching. It was asking about what was the worst thing about teaching:-

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amiibeingunreasonable/5280405-teachers-whats-the-worst-thing-about-the-job-now

fwiw

@Ubertomusic my experience of teaching in a multi-ethnic urban school is that second-generation students retain the culture and values of their parents to a very great extent. But yes, those children born in London to Lithuanian, Polish, Slovakian parents can identify as white British.

The white working class in Brent is probably waning, as you suggest, and clustered in different parts of the borough - if at all.

@AquaPeer

Are you sure this is true for free schools? That wasn't my understanding but I could be wrong.

The local authority process the admissions but I had a feeling that free schools (because'free') can have the final say.

What choices does it limit if you only do double science? There are no degree courses that require separate sciences (as far as I know)

Their policy is random allocation for those living within 5 miles. This is administered by the LA . So no choosing pupils. Why do people have "feelings" rather than just check the facts which a freely available on the internet?

I don’t think it limits as such. But it is beneficial to do separate if you have able pupils interested in sciences. Apparently better prep for A levels. But I don’t know how this translates to later achievements

The available places are randomly allocated

@exissues

Check whatdotheyknow.com which is the Freedom of Information request website, specifically created for people to equip themselves with facts rather than feelings.

Ok so it doesn't limit any choices then. GCSE choices generally don't - as long as the core subjects are followed. Why do people make stuff up.

I have seen quite a few sixth forms state grades needed in 8 or 9 subjects. I also read unis look at grades in context of number of subjects, amongst other things.

Troll?

@ExIssues yeh, obvs

Universities now look at your top eight subjects

From what I’ve read and watched it seems to be a great school with great outcomes and no one is forced to go so if it’s not your thing don’t send the kids, it seems to get a lot of backlash for a school people don’t have to go too.
Personally id have loved a school like that back in the day, I struggled a lot with the noise and chaos of the hallways/classrooms

Yes all the free schools in my area use local
authority admissions. Some academies do not, usually when their admissions are religious or academically selective.
You can tell because on the local authority published admissions documentation it says “this school is its own admitting authority”

this is clearly not the case for Michaela- Brent publish how they allocate the spaces each year

100% this- very strong opinions formed on an incorrect idea that is easily checkable.

This site publishes millions of FOI requests. What do you want @ExIssues to look for?

because- I can promise- it doesn’t reveal that KB found out all applicants backgrounds and selected them for admissions.

He is NOT respected by the psychology community. He’s the psych equivalent of Andrew Wakefield. A dangerous misogynist and supporter of Andrew Tate.

That would be a terrible way to teach my subject English. And we get results which are contextually excellent (as well as just generally).