Overcoming the Educational Odds | Katharine Birbalsingh | Glenn Fahey | CIS

High-performing schools make a difference every day in the lives of our younger generation, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. One such school making an impact is the London-based Michaela Community School. Education is undoubtedly the best way to enable society to achieve greater economic mobility and pursue equality of opportunity. Yet educational disadvantage continues to limit students. Sadly, many children will not finish school with the tools they need to succeed. This is an unacceptable indictment on our education systems; which are failing to give all students an equal shot.
Carrying the reputation of being ‘Britain’s Strictest School’, Michaela’s team has enjoyed remarkable success, despite its critics. So how has the school delivered excellent outcomes for its mostly disadvantaged students? How can Australian schools improve our results? What is preventing more students from overcoming the educational odds?
Katharine Birbalsingh CBE is principal and founder of Micheala Community School. Katharine and her school are internationally acclaimed for their educational success. She is editor of the books, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way and Michaela: The Power of Culture.
Glenn Fahey is a research fellow in education policy at CIS with a particular focus on education finance and accountability.
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[@delaslight]

As a pediatric therapist, every single word she said is true scientifically. Internet use, silence, holding children accountable, etc. kudos to her🎉

[@seung-wunyi475]

How many "amens" could I fit in 1 hour long interview. Absolutely nailed it.

[@kaweaakuna7325]

Brilliant👌😁

[@nfernando]

KB is the Camille Paglia of education. What a whirlwind! What a gem! Bravo.

[@marionjohnson748]

Inspirational, refreshingly forthright and urgently needed in our schools.

[@Ward1859]

As an effeminate boy, I was horribly bullied in the hallways between classes when I was in school in the 1970s. How wonderful it would have been to have had safe, silent hallways/corridors. One would think that it should go without saying that having a safe, organized environment would free a child's mind for learning. Work hard, be kind. What an excellent motto for a school.

[@bluexboxgamer2613]

Sure, but a lot of Katherine Birbalsingh's right wing supporters hate effeminate boys. In the 1970s, people bullied you not because the school was out of control (well, okay, could be that), but because people at the time were raised to be judgemental and not to be understanding and compassionate, so maybe the issue isn't that there should be silent corridors (yes, corridors should be put under better control, but not to the extent that she does it), but the real solution should be to teach kids about compassion and to care about each other, along with the stifling of the homophobes.

[@lluisboschpascual4869]

@@bluexboxgamer2613 "Work hard, be kind" : they are teaching compassion. What the kids seem to be learning also is respect. Respect towards the teachers, but more than that respect for each other

[@bluexboxgamer2613]

@@lluisboschpascual4869 that's the motto of the school. "Work hard, be kind." She doesn't treat pupils with respect, she was gulit tripping a boy just because he behaved silly in the corridors (given her ridiculous rules, God only knows what that means). This woman, no matter how much she pretends, is a nasty piece of work. She doesn't show compassion, she only talks it. She literally says about how she straight tells parents that they're their failures, then hides behind some excuse that you hire gym coaches to shout at you. No we don't, we hire gym coaches to help us learn how to use the gym gear and to support us, and if they do shout at us, we go look for another gym coach. She's a very dangerous woman. Her idea of "not wasting to waste time", whilst I understand the context of it and can agree with it, is often used by the same teachers who don't want to investigate into bullying incidents. Plus, I actually know a school (Abbey School in Faversham, if you want to know) which has tried to become a Micheala 2.0, and guess what? There's still bullying in the school (some students actually have said they don't feel confident talking to teachers and to be fair, some girls got sexually assaulted, but when reporting to teachers, they were initially dismissed, with those teachers saying, "Kids will be kids.") And the school is quite poorly disorganised, with teachers getting grammatical errors in important letters. Yes, the learning is good and certain staff will deal with bullying and they actually deal with it, but the strict culture of the school has damaged it. So don't just look at Michaela as a beacon of strictness, when other schools have tried and failed. (Or maybe Michaela's just hiding something, and thanks to the Tories, they are protected.)

[@lluisboschpascual4869]

@@bluexboxgamer2613 Strange retort: "There is this other school in England that would want to be like Michaela, but they're failing at it and they have all these flaws. So that proves that Michaela is very very bad, and Birbalsingh a very dangerous woman." 🤔

[@bluexboxgamer2613]

@@lluisboschpascual4869 I know, but I just want to educate you on the bigger picture because it annoys me how people are like, "Oh we need more strictness." or "Micheala is a beacon to follow for all schools," when these people aren't aware of the schools which tried to emulate it's model, but failed. Katherine Birbalsingh herself was directly confronted by someone when he pointed out that students who came from schools with silent corridors policies were more troublesome. (Here's the video where she was confronted kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2TOZ2ytgd6kbck)

[@floatingyunsan]

Can I just say I wish I could attend this school or maybe if all schools learnt a bit of the ideas education would be more effective. This headteacher is absolutely incredible her values and ethos is exactly what I imagine a good school to be. 👍🏻

[@davidmortimer978]

great video, great leader, well done.

[@fayolivier2416]

This lady is spot on being of the older generation 73 schools in the UK had more values and traditions I recently looked at a documentary some years ago where some children swapped schools for a week and one boy in particular who had a difficult homelife and was an underachiever was given the opportunity to go to a private school (with lots of discipline and accountability) as a boarder and excelled there and I think has gone onto university

[@edwardbremer6322]

this lady needs to be paid to come to America and teach our teachers how to teach.

[@charlesmoore766]

Overcoming a challenge results in pride of achievement, self confidence and personal growth.

[@nascar0509]

The ideologues are envious and resentful of teachers like Katherine.

[@sherraleewoods3668]

Liking what I am hearing. Kindness definately grows when it is taught and modeled.

[@bluexboxgamer2613]

Yes, but this woman is very much the opposite of kindness. She's an evil narcissist who acts kind with other adults, but she treats children like slaves who should just follow her blindly and that she and her allies just want full power with responsibility.

[@az1758]

​@bluexboxgamer2613 Nonsense. She's strict, that's all. She has high standards, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you don't care, by all means let the children do whatever they want. Katharine is a proper headteacher with great expectations of her students.

[@floatingyunsan]

That is so true 🤦🏻‍♀️ maybe I am not bright but I am willing to learn but it is impossible to learn when it's not being taught 🥲

[@liaszalma7385]

perfectly stated.

[@jeanb2725]

I really like this woman when I have kids one day ill be sending my kids to her school. Coming from a young person well done 👏 we need more people liker her.

[@screensheems]

Brilliant! Please become the Education secretary!

[@nascar0509]

To hell with Katherine's detractors, they do not care if they did they would listen and be open to dialogue not to mention they wouldn't be capable of the hard work required as Katherine's colleagues are.

[@dartharpy9404]

Great interview 👍

[@liaszalma7385]

Setting them up for success! Love Love it x

[@sherraleewoods3668]

Thankyou I found that quite informative

[@konbouzikos]

Great leader more people in Australia need to read the book Reforming education by Mortimer Adler . A must read

[@carolinekelly3415]

Hello, very interesting!!! Thanks for connecting. I enjoy your pedagogies and methodology.

[@Fat1Dada]

man... the questions were spot ON, kudos.

[@johnnyboyvan]

Public education is failing and kids are bored and can't compete with cell phone content. I have had grade 12s admit they gave not read an entire book from beginning to ending. How sad is that?

[@bryanquispe2786]

amazing, wow.

[@lluisboschpascual4869]

What a splendid woman!

[@TomTrust]

Absolutely spot on, Katharine.

[@andrews6952]

im only 30 but i find it crazy that detentions are not common anymore? we always had detention if we acted up

[@sicilieli1]

a great woman

[@ryanthelion145]

What is the curriculum.

[@sassy3923]

Traditional values, methods and discipline.....NOW I know why homeschooling gets the same superior results as the Michaela School.

[@MM-eo2jj]

Hardly... you have one student.

[@sassy3923]

@@MM-eo2jj Homeschooling is extremely successful across the board.

[@petergaskin1811]

Enough qualified teachers in schools properly financed by a caring Government in the UK would help.

[@jumboridesagain7336]

Glenn, instead of sitting in a comfy office getting paid by corporate money to write blog posts, become a public school teacher. You can still write your blog posts, but you can lead from the front that way. It might change your perspective on things though. - Signed, someone who works for a living

[@nascar0509]

Ah, the left's bigotry of no expectations.

[@figgettit]

is she irish? what the hell is this accent.

[@bigbro8401]

Born in New Zealand, lived in Nigeria, France, Canada and the UK. Fluent French speaker and teacher and her father is the renowned professor and academic Frank Birbalsingh.

[@user-om4bw3kk7y]

Racist teacher and that is bullying

[@NickName-di3wp]

Absolute out of date out of touch rubbish!

[@dominan7996]

Rubbish doesn't produce good results. This school's good results speak for themselves whether we like it or not.

[@az1758]

Is modern and in touch any better? The standard of education has gone downhill in the last decade.