Katharine Birbalsingh: ‘Being strict means keeping standards high for students’
By RITHIKA SIDDHARTHAApr 18, 2022
“LOOK at me. Look at me. Look at me!” Katharine Birbalsingh is describing one of the many soft skills taught to students at Michaela, the exemplary community school she set up in Wembley, northwest London, in 2014.
Birbalsingh – described by the UK media as Britain’s strictest teacher or headmistress – is demonstrating how students are taught the art of a firm handshake.
“We think schools are [mostly] about academic success, but it’s about all sorts of soft skills too,” she explains.
“We do reward events – when students come up to get their badges, I say to them, ‘this is your opportunity to practise your handshake, and to look at me in the eye. You will attend university and job interviews, and you need to make a good first impression. That’s going to come from your handshake and looking at somebody in the eye.’
“So, every morning I shake hundreds of hands, may be even thousands. Some of them look me in the eye. Other times I go, ‘look at me. Look at me. Look at me!’
“I’m doing that over and over again. Then they go, ‘oh, oh, yeah.’ I talk about how to hold the hand – firmly, but not too firmly. You don’t want it to be a bit of a wet fish.”
Students at Michaela aspire to get into Oxbridge, Harvard, MIT or the Russell Group of universities. At their daily “family (school) lunch”, pupils serve one another and discuss a contemporary topic and also learn how to have a conversation with strangers.
A good education is about more than academic grades, it’s also about gaining soft skills, being kind, increasing one’s knowledge and being a good person, Birbalsingh says.
“Our children are so kind, they look after each other. If somebody forgets a pen, they make sure they are helping out.
“If a plate is dropped in the dining hall – all my life in the inner city, if a plate gets dropped, kids start banging on the table. That’s what they do. Here, other children would rush to help them pick up the plate.
“People think we’re strict, but it’s about looking after each other. It’s about being proud of your good school. You wear your uniform with pride, you walk through the corridor with pride, as opposed to, ‘well, everything’s just a bit rubbish and I’m rubbish and I look like rubbish, and everything is sort of falling apart.’”
Birbalsingh’s “strict” reputation precedes her – in fact, online searches for her name show her as being the strictest teacher in the world, not only in Britain, she laughs.
But she defends her approach to education, especially when it comes to inner-city students, an area where she cut her teeth.
“I believe in order and structure and that children achieve best when there’s calm in the classroom and in the corridors,” she says.
“We’re quite a strict school. What does that mean? We love the children enough to keep our standards high. People think that strict means you’re mean. It doesn’t, it means you always follow through on what you say.
“Our rules aren’t that different to most schools which have a behaviour policy relatively similar to ours. It’s just that we follow through – that’s the big difference.”
Katharine Birbalsingh with students atMichaela Community School
Michaela enjoys a stellar reputation in the UK and abroad. It attracts 600 visitors a year – most are teachers, and they come from as far as Australia and Canada, and also from across the UK and Europe. Copies of visitors’ letters are bound and left in the school’s reception area to peruse.
“In the Netherlands, there’s a whole group of people creating Michaela concept schools. In fact, they’re getting all these schools in the Netherlands to be like us,” says Birbalsingh.
Later, she admits to being disheartened that there aren’t more schools in Britain like Michaela. Its Ofsted rating (in 2017) was outstanding and in 2019, GCSE results showed 54 per cent of graded papers getting a grade 7 or above, with 90 per cent achieving grade 4 to 9 in mathematics and 90 per cent getting 4 to 9 in English. In 2021, according to one media report, two students secured admission to Cambridge and more than 70 per cent were expected to take up places at a Russell Group university.
But the road to success is hard, Birbalsingh says. At the 2010 Conservative party conference, she criticised the “dumbed-down” state education system that she said was failing students.
With Michael Gove at the 2010 Tory party conference (Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
“It keeps poor children poor,” Birbalsingh told the party faithful. They were impressed, including then education secretary Michael Gove, but her outspoken comments led to her losing her job in a south London school.
A decade on, Birbalsingh says the state of school education is better, but there was more to be done.
“There are still too many people who reject these sorts of ideas. The idea of strictness, for instance, the fact that we, as a society, don’t understand that strict is obviously wrapped up in love, that discipline is a good thing for children. That holding your standards high, especially for inner-city children, or disadvantaged children, is an act of love. It worries me that we aren’t there yet.
“And I don’t just mean in terms of schools. [Also] in terms of society, because schools simply represent society. They are a mirror of what we are, what we believe in, so they don’t stand apart.
“I feel too often excellent head teachers have to fight the popular culture in society in order to establish their school and make it excellent. That shouldn’t be the case. I think 60 years ago it would have been the case, but it isn’t now.
“Excellent schools are always run by a head teacher who is brave and is willing to stand up against the normal way of thinking in society. I wish we could make it more popular. But we must recognise the role society plays in preventing that from happening. A head teacher has to stand against the zeitgeist of normal society in order to run a good school. And that shouldn’t be the case.”
Are these [hurdles created by] politicians, parents or commentators?
“Everyone, just everyone. I mean, the middle classes – the media, people who pull the strings of the country. They have been to private schools and have no idea what goes on in the inner city.
“They remember some old fuddy duddy teacher and think, ‘gosh, it was so boring, wasn’t it? What we need to do is make things more relevant and more fun.’
“They say these things and don’t understand the consequences. And they are writing articles everywhere and it becomes part of the culture, more seductive and the trendy thing to say. It sounds much more interesting. The influencers – up at the top – tend to be from more middle-class backgrounds.
“What you need to do is understand the kids and talk to them about the stuff they can connect with and make it more fun. So instead of learning your verb tables in French, you might do a French rap song, because that’s more fun. But it doesn’t actually teach you any French. That’s the problem.
“And we have forgotten that the subjects themselves are intrinsically interesting, and that children will be genuinely interested in Shakespeare if you make it accessible to them. You don’t need to abandon Shakespeare and think that is irrelevant to their lives.
“The zeitgeist is to be more lenient on the kids. Once upon a time, it was perfectly normal to give a kid detention. He’s got 20 minutes of some work to do after school, then he goes home. I don’t understand what the big deal is. But people find this is unfair and unkind.”
Birbalsingh outlines her expectation for students to turn up on time and listen in lessons, with their shirts tucked in and their ties done to the top.
“My expectations are not abnormal. At least I don’t think they’re abnormal. But nowadays, there’s much more of a push from society. That we’ll just relax – who cares if they don’t sit up straight? Who cares if the uniform is a mess?
“It’s not just about discipline, it’s also about the way we teach. We believe the adult is the authority in the classroom. The children are led by the adult, as opposed to child-centred learning where the desks are in groups, and the children are left to do their own learning. We believe that, as adults, we know more than the children, so we should be leading them.
“Over the last 40 years or so in this country, that has become an unpopular view, I think, because people confuse authority with authoritarianism.”
Birbalsingh also explains the misconception around the word “strict”.
“It means you love children [enough] to keep your standards high for them. What you don’t do is try and be friends with them. You understand you are an adult in authority, and that you are there to help them build the right kinds of habits, so they can become successful adults, not just financially, for them to be happy, to have learned a lot at school and found what makes them tick. So that’s what it is. But I think we all sort of think that strict means being mean.
“I’ll tell you what I think mean is. It is not holding your standards high, for children to leave school – as so many do in this country – functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate. And then for us to say they are that way because they were born into poverty. That isn’t the case.
“Many people make huge successes of their lives despite having been born into poverty. And the secret is they had a supportive family at home who believed in education, and they will have been to a good school. And the good school would have been good, because it was strict.
With guests at the GG2 Leadership and Diversity Awards in March
“That’s not the only thing. You need excellent teachers and high standards in terms of what you are expecting and academic results. But you can’t do any of the other stuff unless you have the discipline.”
Birbalsingh attended the GG2 Leadership and Diversity Awards in March in London. The event also saw the launch of the latest edition of the annual GG2 Power List, profiling the 101 most influential Asians in Britain.
As the daughter of an Indo-Guyanese father, she is aware of the expectations of Asian parents. “I think they get a lot right, they do a very good job,” she says, before describing her father’s initial disappointment when she said she wanted to teach.
Growing up, Birbalsingh recalled an interest in law. However, when she was at Oxford, she went to visit inner-city schools to tell the children how they should apply to Oxford and Cambridge.
“They felt enthused, they changed their minds and decided they wanted to apply. I thought, ‘Gosh, I’m really changing lives here.’ And I went, ‘I just have to go into teaching.’
“I think my father thought I would change my mind. But it was all I ever talked about. I was obsessed with it. I loved it, it still is the case. I obviously still talk all the time about teaching and how I love the school and the children. He came to realise that it was obviously the thing for me. He was one of those brave Asians in the sense that he was proud of his daughter for doing what made her happy.
“That’s the thing about teaching – you have such huge influence over all of these children’s lives, and you help them become something they might not otherwise have become. It’s the thing that makes life worth living. That’s why I love it, because you’re able to love these children, and send them off into life.
“And you have an impact on the world, so when you’re 90 and look back at your life, you can say, ‘I contributed, I did something to make the world a better place.’
“I would always tell people to go into teaching – it’s the best job in the world.”
THE NHS said on Thursday (19) it will not offer two new treatments for Alzheimer's disease, citing high costs and "too small" benefits.
Donanemab and Lecanemab have been hailed as breakthrough treatments for slowing down the symptoms of early-stage Alzheimer's, the most common type of dementia.
They are active substances used to treat adults with mild memory and cognitive problems. They target a cause of the disease by binding to amyloid, a protein which builds up in the brains of people living with Alzheimer's, rather than just treating the symptoms.
According to NHS spending watchdog NICE, the medicines have been effective in delaying the progression from mild to moderate Alzheimer's by four to six months.
But, the benefits were "too small to justify the additional cost to the NHS".
Last year, NHS England suggested in a briefing that the cost of bringing the drugs to the service could be £500 million to £1 billion per year.
Donanemab is sold as Kisunla by American pharma giant Eli Lilly and Lecanemab as Leqembi by Japan-based Eisai. Both labs have said they will appeal the decision.
Chris Stokes, Eli Lilly UK and Europe president said: "If the system can't deliver scientific firsts to NHS patients, it is broken."
Both treatments were approved last year by the UK's medicines regulator for treating early stages of Alzheimer's.
Donanemab is advertised as costing between £60,000 and £80,000 per year, according to Alzheimer's Research UK.
In April, Leqembi became the first such medicine approved for sale in the EU based on its health watchdog's endorsement following initial misgivings.
"Naturally, there is disappointment that the first breakthrough treatments won't be available on the NHS," said Siddharthan Chandran, director of UK Dementia Research Institute.
However, he said the drugs paved the path for "more affordable and effective treatments and diagnostics".
"NICE is simply doing its job," said Atticus Hainsworth, professor of Cerebrovascular Disease at the University of London.
He added however that the new drugs had shown that "the needle can be moved in dementia" treatment.
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TWO survivors of grooming gangs have called for politicians to step back and let women shape the new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
Holly Archer and Scarlett Jones, who helped run a local inquiry in Telford, said the political fighting over vulnerable women must stop before the investigation begins, the Guardian reported.
"We have to put politics aside when it comes to child sexual exploitation, we have to stop this tug of war with vulnerable women," said Archer, who wrote a book about her experiences called I Never Gave My Consent: A Schoolgirl's Life Inside the Telford Sex Ring.
"There are so many voices that need to be heard. There's some voices, though, that need to step away. We can do it, let us do it – we don't need you to speak on our behalf," she was quoted as saying.
Jones, who works with Archer at the Holly Project support service, said people were taking advantage of survivors. "There are so many people out there at this moment exploiting the exploited – it's happening all the time," she explained.
Both women use false names to protect themselves and their families. Archer said she no longer uses social media after receiving threats. "I've been called a paedophile myself, a paedophile enabler, a grooming gang supporter. They said they hope my daughter gets raped. It's just constant," she said.
She also described how the far-right Britain First group gave her leaflets in Telford after her book came out in 2016. "They handed me leaflets that had quotes from my own book in them. They didn't know it was me, and they were telling me I was very pro what they were doing. It was insane," she said.
The government announced this week that police will collect ethnicity data for all child sexual abuse cases. This follows a report by Louise Casey that found evidence of "overrepresentation" of men of Asian and Pakistani heritage among suspects in some areas.
However, Casey also said police data from one region showed that the races of child abuse suspects matched the local population. She urged the public to "keep calm" over the ethnicities of offenders.
Archer said collecting ethnicity data was important but people should not rely on stereotypes. While she was abused from age 14 by men of Pakistani origin, most of the men who "bought" and raped her as a child were Chinese. Jones said she was first abused within her own white family before being drawn into a child sexual abuse racket.
"Nobody wants to know about that because that doesn't meet their narrative," Archer said. "You're told that you're just not relevant, that it didn't really happen to you anyway. You're a liar. You're a fake person."
The new inquiry will coordinate five existing local investigations through an independent commission with full legal powers. The National Crime Agency will lead efforts to reopen historical group-based child sexual abuse cases, with more than 800 cases set for review.
Both women welcomed the plans but criticised the previous independent inquiry into child sexual abuse led by Prof Alexis Jay.
"Years later, nothing has been done, none of the recommendations have been implemented," Jones said. "The worry is that that is what will happen again."
The government will also change the law so that all sexual acts with children under 16 are charged as rape, and will quash criminal convictions of victims who were prosecuted for offences while being exploited.
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Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and India's prime minister Narendra Modi shake hands before posing for a photo during the G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis, in Alberta, Canada, June 17, 2025. (Photo: Reuters)
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The report was released shortly after Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney held talks during the G7 summit in Alberta.
Modi and Carney agreed to restore the top diplomats both countries had withdrawn in 2023. Both governments described the meeting as productive.
Carney's decision to invite Modi to the G7 drew criticism from some members of Canada’s Sikh community. Tensions between the two countries have remained since September 2023, when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau accused India’s government of playing a role in the June 18, 2023, killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader in Canada.
India has denied involvement in Nijjar’s killing and has accused Canada of sheltering Sikh separatists.
The CSIS report said transnational repression is “a central role in India’s activity in Canada,” but added that China is the biggest counter-intelligence threat. It also named Russia, Iran, and Pakistan.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in October they had communicated more than a dozen threats to Sikhs advocating for an independent homeland carved out of India.
“Indian officials, including their Canada-based proxy agents, engage in a range of activities that seek to influence Canadian communities and politicians,” the CSIS report said. “These activities attempt to steer Canada’s positions into alignment with India’s interests on key issues, particularly with respect to how the Indian government perceives Canada-based supporters of an independent homeland that they call Khalistan.”
The Indian High Commission and the Chinese embassy in Canada did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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Debris of Air India flight 171 is pictured after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 13, 2025.
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Organisers from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness confirmed the silence will be held at 11.20am, followed by traditional Hindu performances from Gujarat at Gallowtree Gate, outside Sports Direct.
The society’s president, Pradyumna Das, told Leicester Mercury: "Though a joyous occasion, this year's festival is marred by the tragic loss of so many lives in the plane crash, impacting families here in Leicester. Today we pray for the departed in hope for their reunion with the Supreme Lord."
The Air India flight crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, June 12. Of the 242 people on board, only one survived – Leicester man Viswash Kumar Ramesh. Among the dead were 53 British nationals, including several from Leicester.
The welcome ceremony for the festival starts at 9am. The chariot procession will begin after the inauguration and reach Cossington Park at 2.30pm for a free celebration.
Pradyumna told Leicester Mercury: "While we observe a world plagued with division and disharmony, this festival shares the wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita to encourage us to see the true spiritual nature of all beings. This means going beyond sectarianism and even religious affiliation. In the Rathayatra festival, the Lord of the universe, Jagannatha, rides through the city to offer his glance of love to everyone."
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The discount is funded and distributed by energy companies across England, Scotland and Wales, but the government decides who qualifies. (Representational image: iStock)
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People on means-tested benefits will now automatically qualify for the discount, regardless of their property's size or energy score. This change is expected to extend support to 2.7 million additional households, including nearly a million with children.
The discount is funded and distributed by energy companies across England, Scotland and Wales, but the government decides who qualifies. Under the previous rules, only those on the guaranteed element of pension credit or on means-tested benefits living in homes with a high energy score were eligible.
Simon Francis from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition told BBC: "With bills still hundreds of pounds higher than in 2020, millions will continue to face unaffordable energy and cold, damp homes this winter."
The expansion of the scheme follows the government's recent decision to reinstate the Winter Fuel Payment for most pensioners.
Although energy companies will cover the cost of the expanded discount, it may be passed on to all customers through a rise in the Standing Charge, BBC reported. The government says savings from reduced energy company spending and improved debt management will offset this.
Energy UK's chief executive Dhara Vyas welcomed the move and said she hoped for "a new improved targeted support scheme".
Chancellor Rachel Reeves recently confirmed £13.2bn for the government's Warm Homes Plan to improve energy efficiency in homes.