Katharine Birbalsingh | |
---|---|
Born | 1973 (age 50–51) Auckland, New Zealand |
Education | MA, French and philosophy, New College, Oxford |
Occupation | Headmistress |
Employer(s) | Michaela Community School, Wembley Park |
Website | To Miss with Love |
Katharine Moana Birbalsingh (born 1973)[1] is a British education reformer and headteacher.[2] She is the founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School, a free school (charter school) established in 2014 in Wembley Park, London.[3]
Birbalsingh is the author of two books, Singleholic (2009) and To Miss with Love (2011), and editor of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way (2016). She also hosts a blog, To Miss with Love, where she writes about the education system. In 2017 she was included by Anthony Seldon in his list of the 20 most influential figures in British education,[4] and in 2019 she was awarded the Contrarian prize.[5]
Birbalsingh was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the elder of two daughters of Frank Birbalsingh, a teacher of Indo-Guyanese origin, and his wife, Norma, a nurse from Jamaica.[6][7] Birbalsingh's father and grandfather were both educators. Her paternal grandfather, Ezrom S. Birbalsingh, was head of the Canadian Mission School in Better Hope, Demerara, Guyana.[8] Her father (born 1938 in Berbice, Guyana) obtained his MA in English in London in 1966, specializing in Commonwealth literature, and worked as a supply teacher in Birmingham and London.[9]
Frank Birbalsingh moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1967, where he worked again as a supply teacher, joined the faculty at York University in Toronto in 1970, and obtained his PhD in Canadian literature in 1972. He held several other positions over the years, including a fellowship at the University of Delhi, India, and a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Auckland, New Zealand (1973–1974),[10] where Birbalsingh was born.[11]
Birbalsingh grew up mostly in Toronto, but moved to the UK at age 15 when her father was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick (1989–1990). In 1996 he was promoted to professor at York and in 2003 became professor emeritus.[10] When the family returned to Canada, Birbalsingh decided to stay in the UK. She graduated from Oxford University after reading French and philosophy at New College.[7][12]
While at Oxford, Birbalsingh had visited inner-city schools as part of a scheme the university runs to encourage state-school pupils to apply, and after graduation she decided to teach in state schools herself.[7] From 2007 she wrote an anonymous blog, To Miss With Love, in which—as Miss Snuffy—she described her experiences teaching at an inner-city secondary school.[13][14] In 2010 she was the assistant head of Dunraven School, Streatham, south London,[15] and that year she joined St Michael and All Angels Academy in Camberwell, also south London, as vice-principal.[16]
Birbalsingh is a supporter of the traditional teaching methods described in E. D. Hirsch's The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them (1999). She writes that the book "opened [her] eyes" to what was wrong in schools, and argues that education should be about teaching children knowledge, not learning skills.[17][7] Responding to the removal of Michael Gove as education secretary in 2014—Gove was also a supporter of Hirsch—she said it was a tragedy that his work would not be completed.[18][19]
Birbalsingh came to national prominence in October 2010 after criticising the British education system at that year's Conservative Party conference, and speaking in support of the party's education policies.[13] Referring to a "culture of excuses, of low standards ... a sea of bureaucracy ... [and] the chaos of our classrooms",[18] Birbalsingh told the conference: "My experience of teaching for over a decade in five different schools has convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the system is broken, because it keeps poor children poor."[20] As a result she became the target of racist and sexist abuse on social media.[18] After the speech Birbalsingh was asked not to attend the school at which she taught while the governors "discuss[ed] her position".[21] She subsequently resigned "after being asked to comply with conditions that she did not feel able to comply with", according to The Sunday Telegraph.[16] The school, St Michael and All Angels in Camberwell, London, was closed shortly thereafter and reopened with new staff and a new name.[22] Alan Johnson, a former Labour minister of education, read on BBC Radio in February 2019 his history of the school from its foundation in the 1880s to its closure in 2011.[23]
Birbalsingh's first publication was a novel, Singleholic (2009), published under the pseudonym "Katherine Bing".[7] Her second book, To Miss with Love (2011), was based on her blog. It was chosen as Book of the Week and serialised on BBC Radio 4.[24] She is also the editor of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way (2016), which describes the education philosophy of Michaela Community School.[25][26]
Birbalsingh has argued that teenagers should be stopped from having mobile phones in school as their brains are not developed enough for them to exercise proper self-control.[27] She has likewise advocated for "digital drop-off" schemes, where children and parents were encouraged to bring in electronic devices to be locked in a school safe for the holidays.[28]
Birbalsingh has said that children used the "race card" when in disputes with teachers, and warned parents to take their children's claims of “racism” with a pinch of salt when disciplined at school.[29][30] She also claimed that young black students were being held back from success in school by teachers who "are scared of being called racist" if they discipline them.[31]
Birbalsingh has advocated the singing of patriotic songs such as I Vow To Thee My Country or Jerusalem in school assemblies, saying that they make teenagers feel proud to be British.[32]
She has cited the works of the late philosopher Sir Roger Scruton as an influence for some her beliefs.[33]
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