'You love them and hold your standards high'

She may have been tagged 'Britain's strictest headmistress' but she assures DAVID WILLIAMSON it comes from a place of love - and Katharine Birbalsingh's tireless efforts to teach her pupils the fundamentals of life and education are reaping academic rewards.

- By David Williamson

KATHARINE Birbalsingh arguably became the most famous teacher in the country when the TV documentary Britain's Strictest Headmistress was aired three years ago.

Michaela Community School, located near Wembley Stadium, in north west London, is renowned for its outstanding academic results and the high standards of discipline expected from pupils.

This is a school where children are taught how to use a knife and fork at “family lunches”. Pupils lay the tables and serve one another before discussing the assigned topic of the day and clearing up.

Visitors remark on the silence in the corridors as children walk between classes, and pupils know better than to break the uniform code or not do their homework.

This unashamedly strict approach to education has won Ms Birbalsingh fans and critics of equal passion in the years since the school opened in a converted office block.

But its record of sending students to top universities with a brace of superb exam results under their belts means local parents apply for their children to be educated in “the Michaela way”.

When you speak to Ms Birbalsingh, the real excitement comes into her voice when she talks about the role of love in leading children towards excellence.

“You love them and you look after them, and you hold your standards high for them,” she says.

“Children always know that if you have low standards for them they are not loved.”

The order and structure for which the school is famed, she argues, is essential in helping children from “chaotic” backgrounds achieve.

She warns social mobility will come to a halt if schools lack good behaviour and great teachers.

And while her free school is relentless in pursuit of success, this is about much more than one day earning a large pay cheque.