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Original poster

Michaela Results

97 replies

RueDeWakening · 22/08/2019 16:36

The Michaela free school has got its first set of GCSE results - I know the school's approach gets mixed views, but the results are amazing.

#MichaelaResults on Twitter is just lovely, I'm really pleased for them. Which is ridiculous really, we live nowhere near the school and have no connection to it :o

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/22/britains-strictest-schools-first-gcse-results-four-times-better/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

18% of results at grade 9 (vs 4.5% nationally)
54% grades 7-9 in all exams
85% grades 4-9 in English and Maths

OP posts:
HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2019 19:36

I was wondering whether there would be a thread. I’ve only glanced at my twitter feed, but from what I can see there only seem to be nice comments about them. Which is somewhat unusual.

noblegiraffe · 22/08/2019 19:56

I was seriously impressed that 1 in 4 of their kids got grade 9 in maths. There really is something to learn from that, and it’s not just that they have behaviour nailed. Would love to see their maths curriculum, I know they do their own booklets.

I guess that year group has had the benefit of so much time lavished on them, I wonder if they’ll achieve the same with their current Y7.

summermadsession · 22/08/2019 20:00

Amazing results - I believe that we all need different kinds of schools and at the moment - for us anyway all the local schools are pretty much the same and that is a problem because kids and families are not.

PinkFlowerFairy · 22/08/2019 20:04

Im impressed! We have a similar school nearby and have decided not to send my children there as its scary. But how on earth did they get those maths results.
. (And at what cost?)

idril · 22/08/2019 20:09

I do think there is some self-selection going on here. There will be a much higher percentage of children going there/staying there that are the type to knuckle down, work hard and thrive in that environment. Not all kids will so applying this level of discipline to all schools won't necessarily work.

We need different types of schools for different types of students so that everyone can learn in an environment that best suits them.

Namenic · 22/08/2019 20:26

Good for them - I’m glad they’ve done well. Hard work and knowing (to some extent) how to regurgitate facts and apply them can get you very far.

summermadsession · 22/08/2019 20:27

My kids would work hard and are really well behaved but are quite sensitive and it feels like this school could easily crush them or maybe not - but I'd see it as a risk to their mental health and nothing is worth that.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2019 20:28

Do you reckon you could get your school to let you have a day to visit them noble? You can feed back to MN.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 22/08/2019 20:28

I heard about this school on the radio recently. Some of the students were interviewed and the sounded so mature and sensible. It’s good to see a school with the ethics of good behaviour and discipline rather than molly coddle and pussy foot around bad behaviour. I do wonder if they take in children who have had behaviour problems or have SEN and if they do, how they approach their studies.

noblegiraffe · 22/08/2019 20:30

It will be really interesting in January when the stats properly come out about percentage of disadvantaged kids who got those results, and what proportion of kids are high prior attainers.

TheBrilloPad · 22/08/2019 20:31

I know the area well, and it really is generally a rough/deprived area with huge amounts of kids who are ESOL or pupil premium. In the context of that also, those results are just mind blowing.

Namenic · 22/08/2019 20:31

I think I would prefer to go to this school than ones where kids interrupt etc.

noblegiraffe · 22/08/2019 20:36

Do you reckon you could get your school to let you have a day to visit them noble?

OMG I would love to visit and have a nosy around. I’d do it in my own time as my school never lets me out, but unfortunately I’m nowhere near.

Everyone who goes there seems to be so blown away by it all that it feels like propaganda.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2019 20:36

That’s the stat I’m waiting for noble. If I remember rightly from previous Michaela threads, they spent a lot of time talking about the low attainment in maths of their year 7 but the ks2 results of that cohort in the surrounding primaries suggested that shouldn’t have been the case.

TheFallenMadonna · 22/08/2019 20:37

They are forecasting a P8 of 1.5, which is fab.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2019 20:39

Dammit. That propaganda feel was why I wanted to see if you’d go. I’d give my right arm to go but I’m not sure I can think of why an ex-primary teacher would need to go.

Malbecfan · 22/08/2019 21:02

Noble, one of my colleagues went there. She said pupils were lovely, respectful and behaviour was excellent, but something was missing. I'm glad they have done well, especially considering the area etc. My students did pretty well too this year, but we don't have such draconian rules about behaviour.

kesstrel · 22/08/2019 21:38

Lord Fekko
I do wonder if they take in children who have had behaviour problems or have SEN and if they do, how they approach their studies.

There's a description in the book about the school, of a child who arrived in Year 7 whose primary school had said he would only be able to attend very part time, because of his behaviour problems. They dealt with it by one-on-one counselling sessions, to help him with strategies to control his behaviour, plus the normal merits/demerits system they have. He was attending full time almost from the beginning, and it was a success. Probably the very calm and ordered atmosphere helped with that.

They put a lot of emphasis on telling pupils they believe in them, that they can take responsibility for their behaviour if they work at it and use appropriate strategies. In some ways it looks similar to the approach taken by CBT counseling - being shown various strategies for taking control of your problems, but no dwelling on the bad stuff or being encouraged to feel sorry for yourself because you've been dealt a bad hand. At the same time, teachers make it clear they really care about the pupils, so it's a supportive environment as well in that sense.

HPFA · 22/08/2019 22:17

I was seriously impressed that 1 in 4 of their kids got grade 9 in maths

Do you think the school's methods work particularly well in maths - the continual drilling and practice? The equivalent figure for English would be interesting to know.

I wonder if the school's methods work better with the higher achievers than the lower? Whilst 85% 4-9 is obviously very impressive it's a similar figure to the better comprehensives in our county. But the
7-9 percentage is higher than what our county's top school achieved. The Progress 8 scores for the different ability groups will be quite interesting.

Echobelly · 22/08/2019 22:24

I was reading an article about either Michaela or a similar ethos school that annoyed me quite a lot. It started out as though it was presumably going to reveal shocking misery among it's oppressed students, tried to make out there was something unnatural and brainwashy and anti-fun in the way the kids talked enthusiastically about their learning and how seriously they took it and revealed... nothing to suggest the kids were dreadfully harmed by the school's ethos at all. Clearly they wanted to, but couldn't.

MiniMum97 · 22/08/2019 22:39

Kids respond to clear boundaries and can thrive if they are consistent and fair. And as the other poster mentioned given the tools they need to help them, not just the harsh discipline. Interesting results.

PinkFlowerFairy · 22/08/2019 23:17

I would love you to go Noble and would love to hear what you think. Id love to visit...

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2019 23:21

Do you think the school's methods work particularly well in maths - the continual drilling and practice? The equivalent figure for English would be interesting to know.

I don’t think so. Their 9-4 % pass rates for English and maths are pretty similar. 90% for English 91% for maths. And for RE I think it was 1 in 3 students that got a 9.

Thinking about it, I’ve seen no mention of their history results anywhere. Wonder what’s happened there.

kesstrel · 23/08/2019 07:55

For anyone who's interested, this is a link to a list of blogs by different people who've visited the school between 2015 and 2018, giving their different impressions:

arollerintheocean.wordpress.com/2015/12/07/blogs-about-michaela-by-people-whove-visited-the-school/

ChloeDecker · 23/08/2019 09:45

Do you reckon you could get your school to let you have a day to visit them noble? You can feed back to MN.

I have actually visited them, with my Headteacher, last year. I won’t say too much as I know how secretive they like to be, but it was a surreal experience to say the least, especially lunch time. I wouldn’t feel comfortable having my own children go there because the answers from the students themselves, sounded very robotic and rehearsed-including the ‘I’m thankful for...’ at the end of a lesson. I also didn’t like the fact, that as soon as a question was asked that they didn’t like by us to the Head (wasn’t rude, just asking if the ethos could be merged with another existing one in case we wanted to adopt any of it) and her smile went and we were quickly ushered out. We were the second lot of visitors that day, with more to come in the afternoon and it did seem like we saw a performance and not the real school.