Description
Michaela Community School is an 11–18 mixed, free secondary school and sixth form in Wembley, Greater London, England. It was established in September 2014 with Katharine Birbalsingh as headmistress and Suella Braverman as the first chair of governors. It has been described as the "strictest school in Britain", and achieved among the best GCSE results in the nation among its first cohort of students. In 2022 the value-added (progress) score at GCSE was the highest for any school in England.
History
Michaela Community School was established in 2014 in a converted office block. It opened with 120 Year 7 pupils. It was named after Birbalsingh's former colleague Michaela Emanus, a West Indian teacher from Saint Lucia, who died of cancer in 2011.
The school was rated as "outstanding" in all categories by Ofsted in 2017. In 2018, it applied to the Department for Education to open a second free school in Stevenage, with a planned opening in 2023. It was approved in 2019, and plans were submitted in 2022. A documentary about the school was broadcast in 2022.
The school has been called "contentious" and received significant media attention. It has been described as having an ethos generally associated with pre-1960s or Private schools and for a time marketed itself as “Private School Ethos—No Fees”. One commentator described the school as an example of a discipline-focused method of teaching children becoming increasingly popular in the UK.
