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Katharine Birbalsingh

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Katharine Birbalsingh
Birbalsingh addressing a Learning Without Frontiers conference, London, January 2011
Born
New Zealand
EducationMA, French and philosophy, New College, Oxford
OccupationHeadmistress
Employer(s)Michaela Community School, Wembley Park
WebsiteTo Miss with Love

Katharine Birbalsingh (born 1973)[1][2] is a New Zealand-born teacher based in the United Kingdom. She is the founder and headmistress of Michaela Community School, a free school established in 2014 in Wembley Park, London.

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.[3]

Background

Birbalsingh was born in New Zealand, the elder of two daughters of Frank Birbalsingh, a teacher, and his wife, Norma, a nurse from Jamaica.[2][4][5]

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. 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.[2]

Frank moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1967, where he worked again as a supply teacher, joined the faculty at York University 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), where Birbalsingh was born.[2]

The family lived in England when Frank 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.[2] Birbalsingh grew up mostly in Toronto, but moved to the UK at age 15 when her father was teaching at Warwick. When the family returned to Canada, she decided to stay in the UK. She graduated from Oxford University after reading French and philosophy at New College.[5][6]

Career

Teaching and blogging

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.[5] 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.[7][8] In 2010 she was the assistant head of Dunraven School, Streatham, south London,[9] and that year she joined St Michael and All Angels Academy in Camberwell, also south London, as vice-principal.[10]

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.[11][5] 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.[12][13]

Conservative Party conference

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.[7] Referring to a "culture of excuses, of low standards ... a sea of bureaucracy ... [and] the chaos of our classrooms",[12] 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."[14] As a result she became the target of racist and sexist abuse on social media.[12] After the speech Birbalsingh was asked not to attend the school at which she taught while the governors "discuss[ed] her position".[15] She subsequently resigned "after being asked to comply with conditions that she did not feel able to comply with", according to The Sunday Telegraph.[10] The school, later named as St Michael and All Angels academy in Southwark, London, closed shortly afterwards.[16]

Writing

Birbalsingh's first publication was a chick-lit novel, Singleholic (2009), published under the pseudonym "Katherine Bing".[5] 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.[17] 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.[18][19]

Selected works

  • (2016) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way, John Catt Educational. ISBN 978-1909717961
  • (2011) To Miss with Love, Penguin. ISBN 978-0670918997
  • (2009) Singleholic (writing as Katherine Bing), Hansib Publications. ISBN 978-1906190156

See also

References

  1. ^ Katharine Birbalsingh on Twitter | "1973 😛"
  2. ^ a b c d e Vidur Dindayal (2011). Guyanese Achievers USA & Canada: A Celebration, Trafford Publishing, 43–46.
  3. ^ "Katharine Birbalsingh". The Seldon List 2017. 8 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  4. ^ That Frank and Norma Birbalsingh's elder daughter was born in New Zealand, see Janet Naidu (July 2009). "Frank Birbalsingh And His World of Literature", Guyana Journal.
  5. ^ a b c d e Peter Wilby (27 February 2012). "Katharine Birbalsingh – undaunted by free school setback", The Guardian.
  6. ^ Sean Griffiths (13 November 2016). "Is this the strictest teacher in Britain?". The Sunday Times Magazine. pp. 14–21.
  7. ^ a b Cristina Odone (31 January 2011). "Katharine Birbalsingh: The Fearless Woman Who Told the Truth About Teaching". The Daily Telegraph.
  8. ^ "Diary of a despairing teacher", The Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2010.
  9. ^ Dindayal 2011, 46.
  10. ^ a b David Barrett (16 October 2010). "Teacher loses job after exposing failures in our schools". The Sunday Telegraph.
  11. ^ Katharine Birbalsingh (2015). "How Knowledge Leads to Self-Esteem", in Jonathan Simons and Natasha Porter, Knowledge and the Curriculum, London: Policy Exchange, 36–42.
  12. ^ a b c Sally Weale (5 September 2014). "Katharine Birbalsingh: I regret telling Tories education system was broken". The Guardian.
  13. ^ For Gove see Fran Abrams (25 October 2012). "Cultural literacy: Michael Gove's school of hard facts", BBC News.
  14. ^ Katharine Birbalsingh's speech, Conservative Party conference, October 2010, courtesy of YouTube, 00:00:35.
  15. ^ Graeme Paton (7 October 2010). "Tory Teacher 'Sent Home From School'". The Daily Telegraph.
  16. ^ Vasagar, Jeevan (3 February 2011). "Out of control – the academy criticised at Conservative conference". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  17. ^ To Miss With Love, Book of the Week, BBC Radio 4.
  18. ^ Birbalsingh, Katharine, ed. (26 November 2016). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teachers: The Michaela Way. John Catt Educational. ISBN 978-1909717961.
  19. ^ Katie Ashford (26 November 2016). "Teaching is workload-addicted. Teachers seem to believe hard work equates to love for one's pupils". TES.

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