Michaela Community School gets Outstanding Ofsted report

[IrenetheQuaint]

Ofsted buy into the vision and approach (unsurprisingly, but still worth reading).

mcsbrent.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Michaela-Community-School-OFSTED-report-final.pdf

I think strongly that it is ok for different schools to have different approaches. Equally, different communities and catchments may need different approaches.

Not sure I'd want to send my child there or work there (I'm a teacher) but I don't think all they do it evil or controversial.

Will be interested to read opinions on this nevertheless as I'm sure some will be much more negative and able to justify it...

Their new video on their website is stongly going for the child focused approach... V interesting swing on things

They are very good at getting children to behave, which is great, but they are only going to attract families who WANT their children to be in such a strict environment and are prepared to back the school up on that, this approach wouldn't work with all families, (although it is better than the approach we are using, which is lets excuse the poor little dears for attempting to poke your eye out, they have such hard lives, and you were being too negative about them smashing those windows)

One of the things I thought was really interesting about Michaela is that the teacher's workload is designed to be humane - i.e. no marking, a centralised curriculum (no planning except what's done at the beginning of the year presumably). Given the attrition rate of teachers, can other schools look at this?

Not surprised Ofsted liked it, everyone who has visited there seems to be very impressed. I don't think I could work there though, I'm not that authoritarian.

Just goes to show what a load of bollocks Ofsted is.
That school sounds like a horror show to me but churns out good little drones so let's not worry about it.

Just goes to show what a load of bollocks Ofsted is.
That school sounds like a horror show to me but churns out good little drones so let's not worry about it.

you sound like exactly the sort of parent they wouldn't want to attract, so they don't actually have to deal with.

"well educated" does not mean "drones", it means well equipped for adult life, and "good" is something to aspire to for our children.

One notable comment- in the report, it states "The proportion of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities is average."

In the earlier discussions in Mumsnet about this school a few people referred to the suggestion by the Headteacher was that a lot of the students had come to the school seriously behind in terms of education progress? Is that not the same thing?

It does say "The proportion of pupils at the school who are disadvantaged is above the national average." Is that what she was referring to?

Disadvantaged means free school meals.

SEN is something that may impact on ability to learn - having dyslexia, being blind etc. You can be seriously 'behind' without having a disability or SEN. And having a SEN doesn't necessarily mean you're 'behind'.

I'm a teacher and I think I quite like the idea of this. This is much more what the (old fashioned, single sex) school I went to in the mid 80s was like and I was surprised at normal schools when I went into teaching ten years ago. Certainly that rigid, strict form of schooling worked for us. It wasn't religious either.

One thing I have noticed is that their staff (maybe heads of department?) are very active on social media - blogging and tweeting (and, now I come to think of it, they also tend to write articles and book chapters). I imagine that could fill a lot of the time saved on marking and planning. No idea if it is expected, expected but implicitly required, or if that is just the type of teacher they attract.

They've also only got up to Y9 in the school and I understand they have quite a lot of non-contact time as a result.

I don't like the idea that children need draconian discipline in order to thrive at school. I just don't buy it.

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A teacher eats lunch with every group of students. Every group of students, every day. The teacher leads the conversation. These teenagers are not given the time and privacy to have their own conversations. That's not right in my book. It all sounds a little brain-washy to me. Articles written by the staff sound almost cultish.

They haven't had a set of public examination results yet so we have little idea really of how well educated their students are.

And if they churn out students or try and attract parents who would be so judgemental of someone after reading two sentences online then I'm even more certain of my opinion.

I'll stick to educating my students with severe SEMH.

pointy I find it quite hard to swallow the mutual respect/family stuff because of that - if there was genuine mutual respect, would the rules have to be so strict? Disclaimer: I'm primary based, so might be looking at this differently.

Michaela isn't the only school running no excuses and strict behaviour policy, they're just the most vocal about it. There are other schools in London that do, and I just saw this ad on twitter for a school in Poole.

There are lots of Teach First graduates working at Michaela too, I hear. In fact, they encourage it. By and large, they are super keen whippersnappers who give it full pelt for two years and then leave teaching.

There are some elements I really like. Family lunch sounds lovely, as long as they get some downtime after.
Discipline sounds amazing but I'm quite a laid back teacher (I'm still firm, I still get results, I just talk to students like they are human, I like teenagers and I'm interested in what they have to say) so it wouldn't suit me to keep that 'army major' act up day after day.

Is it almost selective by it's ethos? You'd really have to buy into the regime to even consider it.

Also, with only 360 on roll, it's easy to manage small numbers. Even at capacity, with 4 classes in each year group, you are still talking a much smaller than average high school.

Interesting article here about the Poole school which is doing a similar thing but within an established school (the same school with the job advert above). www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/13422769.The_secrets_of_Magna_Academy_s_transformation__Students_who_walk_silently_between_lessons/

The comments suggest that things aren't as rosy as the report makes out.

noble that school sounds horrendous! I'm so glad my DDs are at a school that manages order, discipline and learning without the presumption that children need to be treated like feral delinquents to achieve.

Oh- those comments are quite telling!

I guess Michaela has a bigger PR team who are able to monitor and remove any derogatory comments.

Yes I'd like to know what the deleted comments were. To be fair the description of it before it became super strict by the person who had been a supply teacher there didn't sound great either. I wouldn't like to send my kids to a Michaela/Magna sort of school but given the choice between that and the description of how it was before I might consider it!
The job they are advertising doesn't sound much fun!

As Michaela is considered Outstanding in all areas, i wonder if there's going to be a move towards pushing all schools to be like that!

Certainly more schools are adopting much stricter discipline, but you can see from the Daily Mail sad faces that this isn't always popular with parents.

I can think of about 7 other schools with very similar no excuses, walking in silence, routines etc discipline. It has come over from the charter school movement in america where it is seen this style can boost results in deprived areas.
King Solomons, Reach Feltham, ARK Schools as well as more standard community non-academy primaries such as Hill Mead Brixton all have similar approaches to behaviour... and many more...

As another poster said, Michaela are just very vocal about it as a lot of their staff are young, enthusiastic bloggers...