Michaela school - experiences?

[teathyme]

This is purely out of curiosity as I live nowhere near it. I saw an interview with the HT and whilst I didn't agree with everything she said the results are very impressive. I know sometimes on paper things are very different to on the ground so just wondered if anyone had experience of it and what they thought?

She’s stark staring mad, the teachers have zero autonomy and have to teach pre taught lessons, she had Jordan Peterson in to talk, kids have to recite Invictus, discipline is ludicrous. Wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot barge pole.

There's a documentary on ITV player currently.

I found it quite illuminating.

For example pupils voluntarily handing in phones to school for weeks on end to stop them being distracted in their studies.

It seemed cult like. Surely they just hand to parents? Don't use them? They seemed to believe they could only achieve if they followed the schools strict rules and it was the only way they'd make something of themselves. Quite sad really.

And the school seemed pleased with the fact detention was full of 30-40 students each evening. Why's that an achievement? Surely if proves a) you don't have the perfect behaviour you state you have or b) your expectations are unrealistic.

It was also showing students being barked at to look at teachers and speak more clearly. As if that's the answer to someone who is anxious to speak up clearly - make them feel intimidated.

They don't have any free time either. No social mixing.

I wouldn't send my own son to a school like that even if it was the only option - and he had no issue following rules etc and never got into trouble at his local state comp!

The results are amazing: the progress score is off the chart. In last years GCSEs every single child who'd started in Y7 with middle and high SATS results got 5s in maths and English and the vast majority of the kids who'd come in with low SATS.

The children seem happy too. I'm glad there is school choice as some parents wouldn't chose it, but it's there for the families who do. The problem for some people is that the headteacher has conservative politics. I'm not bothered about that: the children are high achieving and happy.

The results speak for themselves.

I don’t agree with everything the HT says but mad she most certainly is not.

Hardly zib. The only person who makes a fuss about the HT having conservative politics is the HT herself. She thinks it's a selling point.

And not every child is happy. It's like every school where some love it and some don't.

It is not healthy to teach children that mistakes aren't acceptable nor to deny them any social responsibility.

Their P8 is high because the cohort often comes from deprived areas where they haven't achieved what they can at SATs.

A decent school is usually somewhere between the deprived schools around the area Micheala is in and Michael itself.

You know - a school with discipline that allows a rounded education and accepts pupils are human beings and allows them to feel being human is enough.

Plenty of education staff are conservative. She doesn't have the monopoly on that.

It’s an excellent school and the kids are generally happy. They do well. Lots of the mumsnet left hate even the idea of the school (along with hating JK, Peterson, and anything else that the left hates). If you want to get a real feel - go visit.

Michaela is definitely a marmite school, you either love

I teach in a sixth form college near to a school that has tried to adopt a similar ethos. While they are Ofsted outstanding and get very good GCSE grades, the students flounder at A level - they have no independence either personal or academic. The school has served its purpose but does the students no favours in the long run.

It looks amazing. I wish I lived closer to it.

it or hate it. (Pressed too soon). The results are impressive, the children are happy and there is zero classroom disruption. I'm contrasting it with a recent thread about a 16 year old whose behaviour was making his mum ill - he was walking out of lessons, arguing with the teachers and generally being a pain. He had no SEN. I know which system I would prefer.

She's an abelist, racist, classist twat. The school is bizarre and the results do not speak for themselves. They speak for the highly discriminatory system and the extremely limited curriculum on offer.

michaela.education/results/

I wouldn't call this 'floundering' at A levels.

A 9 is a 9.

I was commenting on a comparable school with a similar ethos. But thanks for your input.

I have a strong suspicion the school does what the high achieving schools and colleges did and do around me for approximately the last 20 or so years.

What is the doc called pleased? Can't find anything on itv

Where does the racism/classism/alblism come in @PollyEsther? Which groups are being discriminated against?

In terms of classism, the results data show that disadvantaged pupils at Michaela do far better, on average, than the average for non-disadvantaged pupils elsewhere.

www.itv.com/hub/britains-strictest-headmistress/10a2923

I really can't be arsed to argue with a Birbalsingh arse-licker, but the fact that she is determined that children from these backgrounds (BAME, disadvantaged) can only learn/succeed if they are treated the way they are at that 'school' is the classism. Anyone with a braincell should be able to extrapolate that.

Ableism is obvious: where is the SEN provision? Oh yes, they don't need it. They don't have SEN children. Wonder how they achieve that. 🤔Pop over to her twitter and read her opinions on SEN.

She's a disgrace.

Have you visited?

@Zib does that screenshot show that Michaela has 31 “disadvantaged” students out of (roughly) 700? So, the equivalent of one class in the whole school? Or am
I misunderstanding?

The results are for the year group taking GCSEs, which I think has 120 students in it.

I started following her on Twitter recently, thinking she was an awful Harris-style rules-bot. And honestly, what comes across to me from that is that she really cares about the kids having the most secure, stable, calm environment possible so they can feel safe and free to learn. I don't really know if it's a school I would choose for my kids, but I don't think she is at all mad.

Saw this on her feed today and I know this approach would definitely help my kids to feel a good.

Have the children with MH issues and SEN left the school? My DS would thrive but DD would fall apart at a place like that.

I don't know the headteacher so 🤷🏻‍♀️ it's a bit unedifying for you to describe me that way.

There's a choice of schools and approaches: it seems weird to describe as racist a school where kids from minority ethnic groups do so well.

Also, their policy for SEN is here

michaela.education/policies-statutory-information/

So it's not true that they don't have a SEN department.

Whoever said it was marmite was right - thank goodness for school choice, so people can opt for a school like this if they want it and not it they don't.