Britain’s strictest head teacher is celebrating her pupils getting almost 70 per cent A and A* grades – more than double the national average.
Katharine Birbalsingh runs Michaela Community School in Brent, London, which prides itself on focussing on academic subjects and a no-nonsense approach to discipline.
Her school beat the national average of just 28.5 per cent of entries getting A and A* – despite serving one of the most deprived communities of the country.
It comes after the new Education Secretary, Lucy Powell, forcing schools to prioritise academic learning was ‘letting down’ disadvantaged pupils.
Reacting this morning, Tory education spokesman Laura Trott said on X: ‘Looking forward to Lucy Powell explaining how these results will be detrimental to the children involved.’
Figures released by the school this morning show a third of entries were graded A* – against national average of 9.6 per cent.
And 10 per cent of her pupils got all A*s, with two going off to Oxbridge.
Some 90 per cent of entries were graded at A*-B, and students achieved an average of AAA across all subjects.
Britain’s strictest head teacher is celebrating her pupils getting almost 70 per cent A and A* grades – more than double the national average (pictured: Katharine Birbalsingh)
It comes after the new Education Secretary, Lucy Powell, forcing schools to prioritise academic learning was ‘letting down’ disadvantaged pupils. Tory education spokesman Laura Trott said on X: ‘Looking forward to Lucy Powell explaining how these results will be detrimental to the children involved’
Michaela students Hossein, Ziyad and Redha are off to study medicine
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Ms Birbalsingh said this morning: ‘We are delighted with these fantastic results. 11% of students are going to study medicine. 85% will be going off to Russell Group universities.’
Despite serving one of London’s poorest communities, Michaela consistently beats those serving the most privileged.
In previous years, it has had the country’s top ‘Progress 8’ score – measuring how well pupils do compared with prior attainment.
Its success has been attributed to its tough discipline, ‘no excuses’ approach, with all new students taking part in a behaviour ‘boot camp’.
However, those on the Left of the educational establishment have criticised her for her back-to-basics approach to discipline and for focussing too narrowly on academic subjects.
The New Zealander, who went to Oxford, caught the public imagination in 2010 when she addressed the Tory party conference about the dire state of Britain’s schools.
She later set up Michaela, with the aim of giving disadvantaged children the same academic education that private schoolchildren enjoy – a model the Tories then tried to replicate in other schools.
However, last week, Ms Powell claimed schools that take this approach are stuck in a ‘straitjacket’ of academic prioritisation, hindering children’s potential.
In an article for The Times, she said focussing on the traditional subjects had led to millions of children being branded a ‘failure again and again’.
Michaela student Maryam, who got two A* and an A and is off to study at Merton College, Oxford
Aryan, who is also at Michaela, got straight A* grades and is off to study at Wadham College, Oxford
The school released its results on social media this morning
And she said this was the reason for recent figures showing a million young people not in formal study, training or work.
This is despite maths, English and the sciences being favoured by both top universities and employers.
Last year, Ms Birbalsingh accused Labour of ‘Marxism’ following a move to curb the freedoms of academies like hers.
Hundreds of thousands of pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their exam results this morning.
Across the country, pupils celebrated their best ever A-level results outside of the pandemic after top grades rose for the third year running.
Boys also extended their lead over girls, with 28.9 per cent of male entries getting at least an A grade, compared with 28 per cent of female entries.
Overall, one in four entries – 28.5 per cent – got at least an A, which is a record high from 28.3 per cent last year, 27.8 per cent in 2024 and 27.2 in 2023.
Meanwhile, 9.6 per cent got an A*, compared with 9.4 per cent last year, 9.3 per cent in 2024 and 8.9 per cent in 2023.
Outside of the Covid years of 2020-2022 when grades were vastly inflated due to teacher assessment in the place of traditional exams, today’s grades are the highest ever recorded.
In 2019, 25.4 per cent of entries got at least an A, with 7.7 receiving an A*.
This morning a record number of applicants – 446,690 – were also accepted on to university courses, up on 439,180 last year, according to admissions body Ucas.
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