Michaela Results

[RueDeWakening]

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

I don’t think I could do the rolling numbers in primary. Not with that energy anyway.

Boris Johnson gave a shout out to Michaela and other super-strict schools (including piggy’s favourite BFS) on twitter.

twitter.com/borisjohnson/status/1165547045173809152?s=21

A tweet that I suspect was written by Dominic Cummings. Given that he is so close to Johnson I would expect to see education getting greater prominence in the next few months (after being practically abandoned by Hinds as he was seconded to Brexit). More silent corridors all round.

BFS, Magna and Michaela in a single tweet. That’s going to send half of edutwitter into a spin

I suppose it could be argued that the teaching style really suits the new GCSE and the ‘knowledge rich’ approach. In a sense the whole school ethos is in alignment with the reformed GCSE ethos. Learn stuff - write it down. There does seem to be a lot of drilling.

I mean ‘learn stuff - write it down’ definitely has its value. I think KB must have an absolutely steel will. The investment of energy on the part of the staff must be huge - and she’s having to lead that.

Isn’t Magna just as bonkers as Michaela? But with less publicity?

KB does seem to have created a cult in her school. A very clear vision and the huge personality required to bring it about. At least she is using her powers for good!

It is. I think reach feltham might be too but mostly only aware of it from the stuff they are doing on primary curriculum. That’s a very telling selection of schools there.

Obviously we’ve moved on from the days when everything was about Harris and Ark.

Bedford Free School doesn't get anything LIKE the results of Michaela , nor does it get the results it said it was going to get when it set itself up. Ooooh, I wish you hadn't pointed that out noble ; it's grinding my gears...

I'd just like to explain the 'teach something - write it down' thing.

In the example I gave before , what happened was the teacher told students what a word meant. They then underlined the word. they didn't write the word or the meaning. Students don't take independent notes (the sixth form teaching style will be v interesting at Michaela; lots of these schools don't have sixth form). They fill in things in work books. All the required knowledge is written down for them in advance in booklets which they keep.

I’m a bit torn on that. Unless you are checking pupils’ notes and adding any missed info, then having it in a booklet does mean all pupils will have access to the same info. It’s quite likely to be easier for some pupils with SEN as well.

OTOH effective note taking is a skill that is probably worth taking time to teach.

Ooh interesting - so A Level will be a departure from that. Tbh I actually find it remarkable that they would have got such great results that way. Also, the whole ‘trad’ label seems a bit misplaced, because giving pupils stuff pre-written in books seems new to me and I’m not even old. I appreciate we used text books a lot more when I was at school but then the whole point was you had to write stuff in your books. I don’t think pupils really have to do much writing at all now.

Also on the other thread someone mentioned their marking policy - what is it? Anyone know?

teachlikeachampion.com/blog/reducing-teacher-workload-re-thinking-marking-michaela-files-part-1/

These seems to be from a couple of years ago. Don’t know if it’s changed. I don’t think it’s a very new idea. Whole class marking has been hanging about for a bit.

Also - this is speculative now and I feel like I should really stop thinking about the Michaela school cos it’s been about three days now - I wonder how well such a didactic style suits really bright kids. I can see how middle ability pupils will do well but is there room for a really clever child be pushed? On the other thread I mentioned that the school doesn’t remind me of private schools because as far as I’ve ever been aware private schools can be quite open to conceptual discussions and debating ideas. That’s kind of the point.

Thanks for the link to marking - that sounds a bit like how marking was done when I was at school. You got a mark and then the lesson was spent discussing why the marks were given out the way they were. Sometimes even shock horror using student examples on the OHP

I don’t think you can really compare it to private school because of the class sizes? I went to a good private school and we had quite a lot of question-answer dialectic learning which I thought was really effective (though maybe a bit more so at a level). But I don’t know how you would replicate it in a class of 30. I mean - what happens if half the class have a burning question? It comes at the expense of learning more material or cementing past learning. Maybe if they had a way of writing down questions and posting it on an online forum you could get round this? I wonder how grammar schools do it?

I think the lack of vocational paths is an issue and raises the concept of different kids suiting different schools. Michaela probably did help a section of kids get better results than if they were at a conventional comprehensive but others would have missed out on exposure to vocational job pathways...

It’s interesting though that they are so keen on Russell Group Universities when this teaching is so not what you get actually at a Russell group Uni. I suppose the A Level will have to act as a bridge, but they’ll have a lot to learn. Note taking for one. Group work, discussion and presentations are a big part of University learning. You’d think they could make room for a bit of that m, even though I also see how you don’t want it to only be that.

The lunch time discussions would probably help with uni discussions and presentations. Knowing about having to do spaced repetition is also helpful for degrees which are fact heavy.

But yeah - knowing what material to select is helpful.

The lunch time discussions would probably help with uni discussions

They are not discussions as such but standing up to announce to those in the canteen, what they are thankful for that day. Then they sit down again and the next person stands up.

I thought someone said they had to sit at tables with teachers and discuss a set topic like The Odyssey

That’s not what I saw when I visited-lunch was pretty silent for the most part (in the canteen-I didn’t see other parts of the school at the time).

Don’t they sometimes yell poetry as well?

I didn’t see that Rafals but quite possible!

The Magna head has now moved to the United Learning academy chain. United learning have just taken over a failing boys secondary, a girls secondary and a primary that are all on the same site in Bournemouth. It looks like the he is overseeing all the changes at these schools, I guess he will want to take them down the same path as Magna.