Michaela's 'frightening and scary event'

 

Katharine Birbalsingh

Katharine Birbalsingh, pretty well self-appointed head of the Michaela Academy free school, has this week written to primary headteacher asking for their help in recruiting pupils to her new school. She wants Michaela's meetings advertised and letters put in the book bag of Year 5 pupils with information for parents about the school.

As by its very nature the school has no track record, exam results, Ofsted report and hasn't appointed  all its staff, parents would be advised to treat shiny brochures and grand words with scepticism.

Tom Stone wrote to local newspapers about his experience of a Michaela meeting but it was not published. Instead I publish it here as a Guest Blog:

I attended the consultation meeting on Saturday15th June  at Brent Town Hall concerning the new proposed Michaela  Free School. This was a very frightening and scary event,one that left me feeling  very cold and concerned.

To quote the Headteacher in her address to those attending, she promised "that the School will teach lots of stuff". No, suspend your disbelief, this is the new guiding mantra of the Michaela Community School.Yes, lots of stuff will be taught! This school will also apply  Eton/Public School type of pressure daily to its pupils,with tests every week and  the results will be published and known to all. Yes, we know the current prime minister was educated at a public school and so were a good few of his cabinet, but  just look  at how they are running the county ,hardly a good advert for private education surely! Pupils with confidence and self esteem issues and pupils with special needs  had better watch out too, your friends will  all know your test scores and use it to bully and harass you - great!

The latest research from Oxford Brookes University states that students who have been to state schools were more likely to  complete their degrees and that they were also more likely to get a good degree ,classed as a first or 2:1, than their privately educated counterparts. Why then was the Headteacher  at this meeting taking  so much delight in running down  the UK' s State Education. American type charter Schools -as praised by the Head, are hardly out of the  headlines in the USA-for all the wrong reasons!

Another fact to point out is this is not  going to be a local Community School, there were people from Harrow, Haringey and Islington at the meeting. It is not going to be a cosy  little haven of  Wembley schoolchildren, this  school will be taking in anyone foolish enough to choose it. A school with no grounds, a school  set up in an office building and a school that is not needed-it is directly opposite another Secondary school!

The Headteacher obviously preaches what she believes too. She  told the meeting that "kids will  just listen to teachers". No time  for clarification or discussion ,no time for interaction and working together.So it  then follows that the proposed Headteacher  did not allow questions from  the public after she spoke ! There also was no loud applause after the Headteacher spoke and the meeting was certainly not full to overflowing ,as claimed by  their recent propaganda leaflet. a strange  and odd meeting this was-oh and just to end with -the teachers in free Schools don't have to be qualified to teach! What next - doctors who don't have to study medicine!