As the teacher began to count, the students raised their hands and bowed their heads, completing the exercise in a flash.
“Three. Two. One,” said the teacher. Pens went down around the room and all eyes turned to the teacher. Under a policy called “slant” (stand up, lean forward, ask questions and answer, shake your head and track the speaker) The students, aged 11 and 12, were prevented from looking away.
When a digital bell rang (conventional clocks “aren’t accurate enough,” the principal said) the students walked quickly and quietly into the cafeteria in a single line. There they recited a poem – Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley – in unison, then ate for 13 minutes as they discussed the day’s obligatory lunch topic: how to save a super-intelligent killer snail.
In the decade since Michael Community School opened in northwest London, the publicly funded but independently run secondary school has emerged as a leader in a movement to ensure children from disadvantaged backgrounds succeed. This requires strict discipline, rote learning and a controlled environment.
“How do those who come from poor backgrounds make their lives successful?” Well, they’re going to have to work harder,” said the principal, Catherine Birbal Singh, who has a cardboard cutout of Russell Crowe in Gladiator in her office with the quote “Hold the line.” in this Social media profilesshe describes herself as “Britain’s toughest headmaster”.
“What you need to do is strengthen the fire,” he added. “Kids want discipline.”
While some critics call Ms Birbal Singh’s model oppressive, her school has the highest rate of academic progress in England, a government-estimated improvement for pupils between the ages of 11 and 16, and its approach to rapid improvement. is becoming popular.
In a growing number of schools, days are marked by strict routines and detentions for minor infractions, from forgetting a pencil case to an ill-fitting uniform. The corridors are silent as students are forbidden to talk to their peers.
Proponents of no-excuse policies in schools, including Michael Gove, an influential secretary of state who previously served as education minister, argue that the progressive, child-centred approaches that the 1970s They spread in, caused a behavioral crisis, reduced learning and hindered social mobility.
Their approach is associated with a conservative political ideology that emphasizes individual determination rather than structural factors shaping people’s lives. In Britain, politicians from the ruling Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 years, have supported this educational trend, borrowing from American charter schools and teacher techniques that became prominent in the 2000s.
Hard-right firebrand Swella Broerman, a former minister with two Tory governments, was director of Michaela School. Martin Oliver, the chief executive of a school group known for its tough disciplinary approach, was appointed the government’s chief inspector for education last fall. Ms. Birbal Singh served as the government’s head of social mobility from 2021 until last year, a position she held while running the Michael School.
Tom Bennett, the government’s adviser on school behaviour, said sympathetic education ministers had contributed to this “pace”.
“Many schools are doing this now,” Mr Bennett said. “And they get amazing results.”
Ever since Roland Spieler became principal of The Abbey School in southern England, he has broken the rules and introduced a formulaic routine inspired by Michael’s methods. He said that an organized environment is reassuring for students whose home life is unstable.
If a student does well, the others clap twice when the teacher says “Two claps on the count of two: one, two.”
“We can celebrate a lot of kids really quickly,” Mr. Spiller said.
Mohsin Ismail, another school leader who established a high-performing school in a deprived area of London, posted a picture Rowing with students in school corridors in November on social media. “You could hear a pin drop during the silent school lineup,” he wrote.
The comments sparked a backlash, with critics likening the images to a dystopian science fiction film.
Ms. Birbal Singh argues that wealthy children can afford to waste time in school because “their parents take them to museums and art galleries,” she said, while for children from poorer backgrounds, “That’s the only way you have to know about some Romans.” History is if you are in your school learning. Accepting minor misbehavior or adapting student expectations to circumstances, she said, “means no social mobility for any of these kids.”
At his school, many students expressed gratitude when asked about their experience, even praised the detentions they received, and fondly repeated the school’s mantra about self-improvement. The school’s motto is: “Work hard, be kind.”
“At first he didn’t want to go to school, but now I’m thankful that I went because otherwise I wouldn’t be as smart as I am now,” said 13-year-old Leon.
With about 700 students, Mikaela is smaller than the average state-funded secondary, which is around 1,050, according to the government. It is so popular that about 800 visitors come every year, mostly teachers, Ms. Birbal Singh said. A leaflet handed out to visitors asks them not to “distrust pupils when they say they like their school”.
But some educators have expressed concern about the widespread zero-tolerance approach, saying that controlling student behavior may produce the best academic results but does not promote autonomy or critical thinking. They say harsh punishments for minor infractions can also come at a psychological cost.
“It’s like they took 1984 and read it as a how-to manual as opposed to a satire,” he said. Phil Biddle, an award-winning British secondary school teacher and author.
For him, free time and discussion are as important to a child’s development as good academic results. He worries that a “difference-like environment that demands total compliance” can rob children of their childhood.
Michael School made headlines in January when a Muslim student took it to court over its ban on prayer rituals, arguing it was discriminatory. Ms. Birbal Singh Defend the ban on social media, saying it is important to create “a successful learning environment where children of all races and religions can thrive.”
The Sindh High Court has not yet decided the case.
Supporters of the strict model and some parents say that children with special education need to thrive in a strict, predictable environment, but others see their children struggling with learning difficulties in these schools.
Sarah Dalton sent her 12-year-old dyslexic son to a tough school with poor academic results. But his fear of being punished for small mistakes created unbearable stress and he began to show signs of depression.
“He was afraid of being punished” he said. “His mental health only mounted
When she moved him to a more comfortable school, he began to heal, Ms. Dalton said.
In England, government data last year revealed that dozens of super-strict schools were suspending pupils at rates far higher than the national average. (Michaela School was not among them.)
Lucy Locken, principal of Carr Manor Community School in Leeds – which does not follow a zero tolerance model – said she realized the practice was spreading after an increasing number of pupils were excluded after attending her school. Her school gets high academic scores, but she said that’s not the only goal of education.
“Are you talking about successful school outcomes, or are you trying to be successful adults?” he asked. “That’s the path you have to choose.”
In the United States, charter schools that adopted similar rigorous practices were initially praised for their results. But in the mid-2010s, growing criticism from some parents, teachers and students led to a reckoning in the sector.
In 2020, Exceptional Schools, an American network of charter schools and one of the pioneers of the “no excuse” approach, announced that it was ending some of its strict policies, including the “slant.” The organization said it would remove “unnecessary focus on things like eye contact and seat position” and place more emphasis on building students’ confidence and intellectual engagement.
“A title in the world of education comes under progressive pressure,” Ms. Birbal Singh wrote on social media. “Incredibly you have just left hundreds of thousands of children.”