Anyone got any opinions on the Michaela School?

[noblegiraffe]

My Twitter is currently full of talk about Michaela as the teachers there have released a book today and are holding a conference explaining what they do. It's a no-excuses school where kids walk the corridors either in silence or chanting Shakespeare, behaviour is expected to be perfect including no slouching. Everything possible is done to reduce workload of teachers - no marking in books, lessons are all joint planned and taught uniformly, no differentiation, they write their own textbooks.

Does anyone's kids go there? Anyone decide against sending their kids there? Does anyone know how it is viewed in the local community?

I find the lunch talk interesting.

It seems very similar to my boarding school in the 80s.
We had set places to sit (which changed each day). About once a week you were unlucky enough to have to sit at the housemistresses end of her table, and you were expected to make interesting conversation. The older pupils used to get very cross with the younger ones if they didn't do their fair share. It was quite an ordeal and on the day we were on her table we used to spend time in the morning thinking up conversation. Oh the joy if you were there on Tuesday which was her day off so you were reprieved.

I think the art of 'making conversation' and 'discussing current affairs' is a fantastic one to be actively teaching pupils who might not be gaining the similar 'cultural capital' elsewhere.

I also like the sound of rules for corridors. If there are no corridor incidents moving between lessons, then people turn up ready to learn at the next lesson. Also no time is wasted dealing with incidents either. It may be that they feel a need for a very rigid system so that there are no areas of grey in behaviour. If quiet talking were allowed then you have to define quiet, whereas no talking is no talking.

I like the making conversation thing. I do this with my tutor group (they are Year 13) and they (and I) love it. We do it in tutor time though. Last week, they went out into KS3 tutor groups and led discussions themselves, very successfully. I'm not sure about it being done at lunchtime though. It feels very much like they're trying to stifle individuality - when do these kids get to be themselves and have normal social interactions with each other?

Sorry, Rafals, I wasn't clear. When I used the words "catch up" in my post at 16:43, I meant "catch up with high-attaining private school pupils". Because that does appear to be their aim, from what they said. And not just in exam grades, but in width of background knowledge and in confidence and manners.

I should say that dd's school are very on the case with behavour in general, and I think most children (people) would find dd's desired noise/interaction level rather / much too low. She's as likely to come home overwhelmed by her English teacher's noisy kettle (how noisy can a kettle be?) as by more conventionally loud behaviour.

School is generally very good on wellbeing and has a quiet space they can use at lunchtimes as well as a non-quiet room that is always staffed where pupils can go if they struggle with interaction more generally. But I do think that in her case she'd love silence between lessons

Evil there are clips of the school when you see the corridors. They are quite narrow.

See 2:47 here - the French teacher / deputy head talking on French tv

But I don't know that the curriculum they have allows them to do that. It seems very narrow. Far narrower than in many if not most private schools.

If their aim was building 'cultural capital', then I think they are missing a lot of stuff.

Is it a new build? Odd that they built it with narrow corridors if that is the case. I used to teach in a secondary school that had been built as a middle school/senior school. The middle school end had tiny corridors because the kids, originally, were smaller. It meant we had no bells at the end of lessons and they relied on every teacher's watch being slightly different! I liked that.

I agree Rafals. The private schools round here (we have three big (one very famous) private schools in this town) are all very big on drama, music and sport. I don't see that at Michaela.

I agree that their extended school day and homework expectations doesn't leave a lot of time for free socialising, and that could be a problem. Especially when children now do so much of their socialising via their phones.

On the other hand, I do think it's important to remember that the average child only spends around 25% of their waking hours, over the course of a year, in school. Even if you add Michaela's extra time demands to that, it still only reaches 40%. And if they want to socialise together at weekends, the public transport is presumably good enough to allow it.

There was a thread on here about cultural capital earlier in the year. It was largely to do with what creates the glass floor for MC/privately educated children I think.

One of the things that came up was that it involved having the confidence to talk about a wide range of subjects. Knowing a little about a lot of different things IYSWIM. I don't see how the curriculum at Michaela encourages that. Presumably it may be done over lunch or during the tutor period at the end of the day.

I think some of the other academy chains might by managing this better.

And while I take their point about IT, I don't see how not teaching computer science is in any way beneficial.

No it was an office block I think. And they repainted and carpeted.

Perhaps they need to add a pub quiz to their supervised discussions at lunchtime. Great for learning a little about a lot of things

True.

Being able to confidently bullshit your way out of anything you don't know too much about probably counts for quite a lot too.

Rafals, They say they are aiming for the kind of cultural knowledge described by E. Hirsch. So detailed knowledge of history, the countries of the world, of classic literature and authors, things like that. As Hirsch puts it, the sort of things that allow you to understand a sophisticated newspaper or magazine article that makes that kind of cultural references. They teach far more knowledge of that kind of thing than the curriculum or GCSEs require. But yes, clearly it is coming at the expense of hands-on experience of dance or DT or computing.

Sounds like they'll all do well on University Challenge if nothing else

Evil Twins
Not sure - there are increasing amounts of popular cultural questions which probably don't form much of Hirsch based curriculum or supervised discussions

But don't Hirsch and the Core Knowledge curriculum say it isn't supposed to be taught as a set of facts to memorise and it shouldn't be taking up all the curriculum time.

I don't have an issue with core knowledge, as curriculae go I quite like it, I just don't think it's supposed to be taught like that.

Wheredid presumably one of the things you like about Eton & Winchester is the huge variety of extra-curricular activities on offer. Michaela has hardly any, as well as a very narrow curriculum.

Wheredidallthejaffacakesgo

I rather disagree. I think a lot of parents of independent schooling are looking for a much greater breadth of curriculum; opportunities for independent learning; critical thinking; practical problem solving; opportunities for teamwork, character development and creativity through a huge offer of extra curricular activities.

That is not to decry Michaela. They are offering something else.

Sorry on reflection that sounds a bit snobby.

Ive said before my son would not like the schooling on offer there; and they are not claiming to suit all. My son goes to an excellent school and I rather wish that taxes would be increased to allow for all our local schools to have some of the facets of his school (like Latin, separate sciences from 11 years old etc, excellent labs, specialist sports coaches)

Where I get nervous about Michaela is that it is rather marketed (like Antony Seldon's project) as "the solution to all our real (and perceived) problems". There seems a reluctance by the school to provide hard statistical evidence; and the constant message (possibly from their supporters rather than them) that without them their students would be illiterate, uncivilised gang members raises scepticism.

breadth of academic knowledge

We have established the Michaela offers no separate humanities, no separate sciences (or seemingly the ability to do lab work); no computer science; no design and technology; only 1 modern foreign language; no drama; no latin/classical civilisation;

It has a particular focus and seemingly does it in a very efficient manner. But nothing like a public school.

Incidentally a good private day school out side London is between £12,000-£20,000 per year. That is a lot compered to the £5000 per pupils our local comps get but not full boarding costs of Eton and Winchester

Is the policy of no separate humanitites and no separate sciences just at KS3? I think that's reasonably standard practice for years 7-9?

For KS3 DD's school just timetabled 'science' (rotating through topics from the 3 sciences). They did teach hist/geog/RS separately but there seemed to be an awful lot of overlap in both teachers and teaching IYKWIM, but from comments on here plenty of other schools seem to run them together as one subject.

Presumably at KS4 they'll have to offer at least dual award science which covers all 3 sciences, and hist/geog/rs etc separately? Or is there a 'humanities' GCSE?

Only 1 foreign language also sadly seems pretty normal - again the case at dd's school (and even then there's only 7 in her GCSE class), ditto no drama at KS3, and surely latin is very much the exception rather than the norm?

Certainly all the private schools around here which start at year 7 offer separate humanities and separate sciences plus choice of 3 MFL and latin.

The closest comp offers from year 7 separate humanities; combined science; choice of 2 MFL but no latin

They all offer drama; comp/sci or IT and drama