Katherine Birbalsingh Archives

Katherine Birbalsingh

Religion, knowledge and liberty seen through the Michaela School prayer row

January 29, 2024

I almost certainly would have been expelled from the Michaela Community School within a week. Like most of my so-called “boomer” generation, attending school I had my suspicions about “the beaks” – as teachers were called in the Beano comic – I excelled at “projects” and flunked tests, chattered incessantly on the back seats and

The Michaela Community School ‘prayer ban’: facing the awkward realities of a multicultural society

January 24, 2024

The Michaela Community School in Wembley, North London is, by many metrics, a success story. But right now the school and its erudite headteacher, Katherine Birbalsingh, are facing renewed criticism, intimidation and legal challenge after a conflict with pupils over group prayer “rituals” at break time. The Catholic onlooker at this drama is left in

Can a secular school have a ‘religious-type’ ethos?

January 27, 2022

Theo Hobson asks ‘Britain’s strictest headteacher’ Katherine Birbalsingh why her methods resonate today