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?

Well you never know, some uni lecturers might send their kids there. Or doctors maybe.

Overall I wouldn’t agree with it. I do like strong discipline and high standards in schools (because class disruption can have such an impact even on the non disruptive kids as we’re finding in DS school now) but I think if you don’t treat children and teens as people you’re not preparing them for the real world. For me an approach that sees children as figures worthy of respect and care is necessary. Children need to learn from their mistakes in a safe space where they can improve themselves.

That's what I don't understand - regarding how much she is in the public eye. Her school gets brilliant results, well done to her! I do believe in parents having a choice of different types of school to pick from, so i don't think she should be silenced or shut down just because she has a different view to how schools should be run. However, she is not the only headteacher running a good school in a 'deprived area'. Like i said in my previous post, Ark Academy is literally down the road from Michaela School, the school is strict, headteacher has high standards and students achieve very good results. Why do we not hear about that school or the headteacher in the media? I literally see Katharine Birbalsingh all over the media outlets, from GB News, The Telegraph to Sky News. Does any other headteacher in the UK get this much exposure? The headteacher of Brampton Manor, the school that sends more kids to Oxbridge than Eton is a Conservative as well, how-comes we don't see him all over the media? I didn't even know what he looked like until I googled him.

But most schools are strict these days. When she goes on about these liberal schools, i don't get it. Nearly every school that I know has strict policies on phones, uniform, behaviour etc..Is she just exaggerating how 'slack' secondary schools are to make her school look even better?

On the "it's not a disadvantaged school" you need to RTFT! It's 31 out of 120, so over 25% rather than the much lower figure.

Opinions are clearly divided but the facts shouldn't be contested when they're there on the national database.

The school actually has a higher than average amount of pupils who have been eligible for FSM within the last 6 years, and also a higher than average percent of pupils on SEN support.

One thing I find intriguing is even their high prior attainers don’t, on average, sit 8 GCSEs/GCSE equivalents.

Teacher equals educated and interested in education.

I would be pretty shocked at a school where the middle to high SATS kids did NOT pass GCSE.

The vast majority of schools don’t have 100% of their middle and high prior attainers achieving 9-4 or 9-5 in English and Maths.

@Avidreader69 but she doesn't need to do that.

Nearly all teachers are worried about children's use of their phones and teach online safety to children. The schools I know about have strict rules of use of phones at school.

I think that school is the exact opposite of what education should be. It plays into this idea that all they need for good results is severe, unrelenting discipline and that’s bollocks.

I also wonder about the type of teacher who’d be attracted to that kind of discipline style.

I have always wondered that as well
Is the staff turnover high at that school?

I read somewhere that she only allows Conservative voting teachers to teach at her school. She won't take you if you're liberal/left leaning. I don't think schools should be political or telling kids how to think.

It sounds like an emotionally abusive environment

I just watched the documentary - and yes, it’s the attitudes I grew up with.
It works for some kids - in the documentary it shows a new boy joining.
KB and one of the deputies talk to him individually and set expectations - they tell him it is going to be hard and it’s a strict school.
They take him aside to talk to him, telling him when he hasn’t met their expectations - but with the spirit that he can do better.
It’s not the end of the world to make mistakes - you get detention and the detention helps you pay attention and improve for next time.
Doesn’t look cruel - I can see that for some kids who have tics/attention issues or who are not engaged, it could be a negative environment (to be fair they do tell the new boy that it wouldn’t be the right place for him if he wasn’t committed).

They have never been allowed to.

We kind of guessed what a lot voted due to the political events of the time and the things we gleaned about their home life.

Exactly.

But that's it.

Detention for making a mistake.

Detentions are meant to be punishment/ consequence for breaking a rule or not doing as asked.

It's cruel to punish children for a mistake. Humans make mistakes.

And with regards the boy being told it isn't right for him if not committed.

That's how they have all pupils who can manage a completely autocratic environment. They don't take the students who can't.

That’s a 5+ rate too isn’t it? So would it be reasonable to assume that with a progress score that’s 2 grades higher than the average school a lot of those middle attainers are getting at least 6s and 7s?

you might not like KB or her politics or philosophy but it’s difficult to argue with those results. I’m not really sure I buy the argument about Michaela kids not being prepared for workplaces. Everything I’ve seen suggests they do teach social as well as personal responsibility. I get the feeling that what gets printed under ‘Britain’s strictest HT’ articles might give quite a different feeling to the actual atmosphere in the school.

I would be interested in visiting tp see what it's actually like and whether the kids do seem happy or controlled. She's always tweeting about how anyone can go and visit, maybe I will!

@itsgettingweird - detention doesn’t need to be viewed as a terrible punishment. It’s just some time you stay in class - which is annoying but not the end of the world. Sometimes u can do school work during that time. It seems like the kids do the detention, and learn to avoid it - there doesn’t seem to be a lot of stigma attached to it - the teachers positively encourage the kids - they know they can do better etc - at least that’s how it seemed to me from the itv program.

agree that the student AND parent buy-in is crucial. And probably wouldn’t work in many situations.

That reply made me curious so I looked on Google:
Free School Meals: 23.4%
www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/140862
Students with SEN support: 11.7 %
snobe.co.uk/schools/michaela-community-school

But isn't it normal for schools to give behaviour points if kids don't turn up with the right kit? My kids (whose schools are not like Michaela) get behaviour points for not having the right PE kit in school, or forgetting their exercise books, or leaving their Eng Lit book at home. All of those things would be accidental, and eventually the dc get more organised.

I can’t get your links to work but from the government site here 15.76% were on SEN support last year. It doesn’t give the FSM % but their FSM within the last 6 years was 29.25%. Both higher than the national average.

I think the key to the kids' success is the fact that the parents who are not supportive of the ethos and rules don't usually apply and the school has very strict rules. Combined these two things create good results. I think most parents of kids with SEN won't apply as they know their kids won't conform to these rules. I have also heard her talk about not lowering expectations for kids who have difficulties. This does not suit many whose kids have SEN.

They have about 30 students a night in detention.

A night.

Either they aren't learning as that's a high number or they aren't meeting expectations because that's a high number.

High numbers of students in detention is not something to aspire to achieve!

Plus it's not realistic to have a 30 minute detention for forgetting a rubber. The girl who talked about it was almost convinced she'd learnt her lesson and would never forget anything again.

She will. Because she's human like the rest of us. How will she cope then?

I don't disagree with the underlying idea of personal responsibly or against some of their ethos.

I'm absolutely against the delivery of a power hungry HT who wants to make it about political point scoring and not education. Perhaps as a very keen conservative she could ask them why the poorest areas of Britain are receiving the lowest funding amounts under the new funding formula? Perhaps she could campaign for these areas on London to receive the same level of funding so they can run the same facility as hers instead of parading around as if she's an educational god and no one else can achieve the same whilst forgetting things like funding formulas and class sizes etc.

Their results are amazing. Genuinely outstanding, they really have achieved what they set out to achieve. But I think the points that have been made about the importance of self selection is really key. If you're a parent who is not of the view that its appropriate for a child to get a detention for failing to make eye contact with the teacher, or for forgetting a 2nd pen, you won't send your child to Michaela. That will exclude all of the more difficult students imo, even if they're "disadvantaged", or low income. There students will come from families where the educational philosophy is uber traditional, what will count for a lot. I'm sure they're doing lots of good things, but you can't really compare it to other schools.