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.

If she believes these things then how does the school consistently achieve highest GCSE grades for a non-selevtive state school in UK? Because presumably approx 50% of those kids achieving do many 7s+ are girls.....

I don’t think it does. I think it’s that Michaela has, or has had, the highest Progress 8 scores in England.

The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School is the highest achieving comprehensive state secondary in London and there are several other state comprehensives here that outperform Michaela.

The Sunday Times rates Impington Village College, Impington as UK Comprehensive School of the Year 2025.

its not about wha5 she believes it’s about what she does. Music isn’t taught at Michaela (certainly at exam level) ergo nobody can do maths and music.

Does Michaela not have to take a share of ND students and students from chaotic homes?

It can exclude who it likes so if sone get in…

Looks like it takes a pretty mixed cohort to me. (This is the Ofsted).

Thank you, @cooljerk . That needed to be said, and here was me afraid to be so blunt about someone of KB’s ethnic background.

Im not sure what that’s got to do with the discussion I was having with the other poster? But obviously if music GCSE is important for your child this would be the wrong school for them. Or you arrange their music GCSE separately.

Thank you for the screenshot, @KTheGrey. TBF though it doesn’t give any sense of scale concerning how many pupils in each category exist.

Everything. That poster said she couldn’t send her daughter there because she wanted to do music and maths. The question of belief related to physics and maths. Screenshot of the actual post you replied to.

As I've already said, "Yes, many of the kids were on free school meals, but poverty vs affluence doesn't always equate in a straightforward way to values and culture, as most right-thinking people understand."

If you know Ofsted, you'll know that 'Disadvantaged' for Ofsted only means '(materially) poor'

It does not mean a kid is 'disadvantaged' by:

• low parental expectations / absence of parent ambition
• chaotic home life
• lack of successful role models in the family or community
• SEN or neurodivergency

And I was responding to the bit claiming that she said girls can’t do physics and maths. You decided to reply to me about the bit I hadn’t commented on.

Both KB and BP have behaved badly, letting personal feelings get in the way of what could be interesting conversations.

Well, in which case she has publicly said that girls don’t like hard maths

I don’t get this, mn is usually falling over itself to go on about ofsted outstanding schools and top gcse results. But when it’s someone who doesn’t follow the status quo either the school is lying, the headteacher is a charlatan, they’re selecting by stealth, they’re doing the pupils a disservice not doing gcse music, they’re not providing for sen. I thought we wanted dc in outstanding schools?

Mumsnet is lots of different people.
Some of them want a school like this, some of them want schools that provide for SEN or GCSE Music.
Maybe the school suits your kids, it would not be great for mine.

The OP wasn't asking a question about outstanding schools. OP asked why Birbalsingh is controversial.

All your repeated / quoted comments answer that question.

What?

Cultural Marxism is an antisemitic dog whistle.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_theory

I think she's only controversial in that she is no nonsense, speaks uncomfortable truths, and delivers in a very different way to other schools.

I wish more people were like her. I'd send my kids to Michela if it wasn't 2.5hrs away!

@cardibach

It can exclude who it likes so if sone get in…

I don't think state schools can pick & choose (unless they have criteria like church going).

michaela.education/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Admissions-Policy-202425-signed.pdf

It looks like they are being selective at 6th form. But for lower school it just mentions living within 5 miles. Priority is given to looked after children.

@cooljerk

I think if she selected high SATS performers it would be harder to show above average Progress 8 scores for GCSE. It says grades are 2-2.5 above their target. So presumably target grades must be 5-6 and they achieve 7-8 with some 9s. That’s really hard to achieve across a whole cohort.

She explains her ethos here - it seems to be really inclusive.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-michaela-court-ruling-is-a-victory-for-all-schools/

'seems'. Don't be fooled. She is the master of seems.

Also, that's just a mission statement, of sorts. Anyone can come up with pretty words.

Also, The Spectator is the most right-wing rag in print. It's inevitably going to be running puff pieces on her.

It's an antisemitic conspiracy theory originating in Nazi Germany. What is your understanding of cultural marxism and what did you mean when calling it a disputed term?

She has more average and below average SATs performers than she does high SATs performers.