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Michaela School

Last one in: My return to Michaela

2016-12-16T16:24:01+00:00December 16th, 2016|Featured|

I had an afternoon free in London on Monday (what luxury!) and arranged to pop in to Michaela Community School to see what, if anything, had changed since my last visit in May 2015. I hadn't realised it at the time but my blog was one of the very first written about a visit to the school and marked something of a watershed. Hard to believe now, what with a series of high profile education debates and the launch of their manifesto, The Michaela Way, but staff had been operating under radio silence and blogging was verboten. Headteacher, Katherine Birbalsingh laughingly [...]

What I know about whether ‘no excuses’ behaviour systems work

2016-12-31T15:01:56+00:00April 25th, 2016|behaviour|

I read John Tomsett's account of his speech at Michaela School's Debate on 23rd April on why 'no excuses' behaviour systems don't work with great interest. As a speech it is well researched, well argued and kinda misses the point. He acknowledges this when he says, "If I’m against “no excuses” discipline, I must, logically, be in favour of “excuses” discipline" but then dismisses this as "nonsense". But is it? He says that "relentless rigorous routines, and consistent, and I mean truly consistent, implementation of behaviour systems were the bedrock of good behaviour management in schools". What's that if not 'no excuses' discipline? [...]

Is displaying students' work worth the effort?

2015-05-16T09:47:29+01:00May 16th, 2015|myths|

Of all the observations I made about Michaela School, one which proved particularly controversial was their decision not put display children's work. The rationale given for this was twofold. It takes teachers time to put up, refresh and replace classroom displays and it takes children time to create work for the purpose of such displays. I've spent the week mulling this over and have arrived at a few thoughts. I'm all for not wasting teachers' time in forcing them to engage in extraneous activities, but then, this is enshrined in legislation. The 2012 workload agreement says that teachers cannot be routinely [...]

I fought the law and the law won

2016-09-14T11:01:09+01:00May 15th, 2015|behaviour|

There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet. Samuel Beckett Yesterday I attended a Speed Awareness Course. I wasn't sure what to expect but was mainly relieved not to get another 3 points on my licence. At worst it would a dull four hours, at best I might learn something. The course started with participants being asked about what excuses we might make for speeding. We came up with the usual suspects: hospital emergencies, first offences, "it's perfectly safe on this stretch of road", needing a clean licence in order to work, lack of [...]

What ‘no excuses’ means to me

2020-07-07T12:03:57+01:00May 13th, 2015|behaviour|

And oftentimes excusing of a fault Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse, As patches set upon a little breach Discredit more in hiding of the fault Than did the fault before it was so patch’d. Shakespeare, King John Let's begin by defining our terms. The dictionary is instructive and offers several different definitions: an explanation offered as a reason for being excused; a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation, promise,etc.: His excuse for being late was unacceptable. a ground or reason for excusing or being excused: Ignorance is no excuse. a pretext or subterfuge: He [...]

'No excuses' is no excuse

2015-05-13T11:31:38+01:00May 13th, 2015|behaviour|

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. Rudyard Kipling I was a bit taken aback at the vigour and vitriol with which some people condemned Michaela School's approach to behaviour. The argument seemed to go that if you refuse to accept poor behaviour then you simply pass on the problem to another school. As far as I can see, that's entirely up to other schools. Consider this scenario. A town has two secondary schools, New Free School and Old Comprehensive School. New Free School has just opened its doors and has made the decision that it [...]

Michaela School: Route One Schooling

2015-05-16T17:31:38+01:00May 12th, 2015|Featured|

I learned two very important principles from my visit to Michaela: You can do whatever you want as long as you hold your nerve and accept the consequences. You can always go a lot further than you first think is possible. The first principle is embodied in Head Teacher, Katherine Birbalsingh’s explanation of how to get the culture you want: you just don’t compromise. If a teacher sees or hears a phone at Michaela it’s confiscated until the following term. It doesn’t matter whether the phone accidentally slipped out of a pocket, and it doesn’t matter whether the parent is going [...]

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