Katharine Birbalsingh, self-proclaimed "Britain's Strictest Headmistress," has brought back a traditional, super-strict style of education to the UK-and it seems to be effective.
At Michaela Community School in northwest London, students follow a strict military-style regimen under its "SLANT" policy (Sit up, Lean forward, Ask and answer questions, Nod your head, and Track the speaker).
For example, during the school's lunch break, students walk quickly and silently to the cafeteria in a single line. There, they loudly recite a poem—Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley—in unison, then eat for 13 minutes as they discuss that day's mandatory lunch topic.
While some critics called her model oppressive, Draconian, and even dystopian, Michaela has the highest rate of academic progress in England, according to a government measure of the improvement students make between the ages of 11 and 16, and the model is becoming increasingly popular.
In a growing number of schools, days were marked by strict routines, silent corridors, and detentions for minor infractions.
Tom Bennett, a government adviser on school behavior, said sympathetic education ministers had helped create such "momentum."
"There are lots of schools doing this now," he added, "and they achieve fantastic results."
Birbalsingh's Educational Influence
Michaela opened in the mid-2010s as a publicly funded but independently run secondary school. It emerged as a leader of a movement convinced that children from disadvantaged backgrounds needed strict discipline, rote learning, and controlled environments to succeed inside and outside the classroom.
"How do those who come from poor backgrounds make a success of their lives? Well, they have to work harder." Birbalsingh told the Times. "What you need to do is pull the fence tight. Children crave discipline."
Born in New Zealand in 1973 to Indo-Guyanese and Jamaican educators who traveled the world to teach at several universities across the Commonwealth, Birbalsingh came to national prominence in October 2010 when she criticized the British education system at that year's Conservative Party conference and supported its education policies.
She also served as the British government's head of social mobility from 2021 until last year, a position she held while running Michaela.
However, despite supporting then-Education Secretary Michael Gove's no-excuses education policies and expressing her disappointment in his removal from the portfolio in 2014, Birbalsingh insisted that she was a "small-c conservative" in contrast to the Tory perspective of conservatism.
Gove's and Birbalsingh's perspective is tied to a conservative political ideology that emphasizes individual determination rather than structural elements shaping people's lives.
The Times also revealed that former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman was a director of the Michaela School.
Criticisms of the Michaela Method
However, some educators have expressed concern about the broader zero-tolerance approach, saying that the trade-off for producing excellent academic results by minutely controlling students' behavior was the lack of personal autonomy and critical thinking and a psychological toll.
"It's like they've taken 1984 and read it as a how-to manual, as opposed to a satire," award-winning British secondary school teacher and author Phil Beadle said.
To him, free time and discussion were as important to child development as good academic results, worrying that a "cult-like environment that required total compliance" could deprive children of their childhood.
This came after the Michaela School made headlines last January when a Muslim student took it to court over its ban on prayer rituals, arguing that it was discriminatory.
Birbalsingh defended the ban on social media, saying that it was vital for "a successful learning environment where children of all races and religion[s] can thrive."
As of this writing, there are no updates from the legal arbiters on its decision in the case.
Proponents of the strict model and some parents said that children with special education needs thrive in strict, predictable environments, but others saw their children with learning difficulties struggle in these schools.
