Britain’s strictest head teacher accuses Education Secretary of being a ‘Marxist’ who ‘hates’ academy schools
Britain’s strictest head teacher accuses Education Secretary of being a ‘Marxist’ who ‘hates’ academy schools
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A north London woman described as Britain’s strictest headteacher accused Bridget Phillipson of being a “Marxist” who “hates academies”. Katharine Birbalsingh, head of Michaela Community School in Wembley, wrote an open letter to the Education Secretary after the pair met this week to discuss improvement. Published in The Spectator, it criticises Ms Phillipson for “not knowing her own Bill” and for trying to make all academies like local authority schools.
Ms Birbalsingh’s high-achieving academy in a deprived area of Brent outperforms many of the UK’s top fee-paying schools at GCSE. Its Year 7 pupils undergo a behaviour “boot camp” teaching them how to walk to lessons quickly in single file, sit properly on chairs and concentrate in lessons. Students receive detentions if they talk in the corridor or forget a pencil case or ruler. But after their meeting, Ms Birbalsingh is convinced Ms Phillipson was trying to ruin schools such as hers.
She wrote: “I’ve repeatedly pointed out your Marxist leanings. “You should stick to your convictions and admit that you do not believe academy freedoms are a good thing and that you believe central government is the answer. At least that would be honest.”. Ms Birbalsingh claimed that Phillipson was not able to answer questions on details of the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, such as admissions and teacher recruitment, adding: “The reality is that your record in Parliament reveals what you really think of academies, which is that you hate them.
“You are pretending to like academies now that you are Education Secretary, because it is hard to openly oppose them in the way that you have done throughout your parliamentary career, in the face of such obvious success. “You don’t want school leaders to have the freedom to innovate and do what is right for their children. You want the state to have control.”. Her school, rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, has won praise from Tory politicians including former prime minister Liz Truss. Ms Birbalsingh was awarded a CBE in 2020.
