Staff at Michaela play misunderstood heroes, ahead of their time and persecuted for their beliefs. It reminds me of extreme ironing: impressive, but completely unnecessary In Battle Hymn, however, teachers ooze with self-assurance, chapters drip with certainty and the book punches you in the face. God knows I have days where I question whether I know anything at all. It’s the virtuousness: nothing seems to go wrong.

The sparrows in Game of Thrones remind me of the Tiger Teachers. Under no circumstances must you talk about Honey G.” There are no displays, windows have blinds to keep the daylight out and the students’ minds in. Within a week of boot camp, this changes.Īt what cost is this transformation? Even lunchtime is controlled with themes given to students, “Here’s your vegetable pie and a Brexit discussion. Students that they have nurtured for the past seven years are labelled as being unable to hold eye contact or use cutlery, turning up cussing and making misogynistic insults, some defecating in the urinals. The feeder primaries may also feel aggrieved. I also wonder how poor the students are (one, we are told, has a tutor that the parents pay for) and whether families mind being labelled as “disadvantaged” and stereotyped as feeding their children sugary cereals in a “language-deprived” environment. In fact, more children are reaching expected key stage standards, more schools in England are now rated good and outstanding than ever before and the most successful region for school improvement is Michaela’s own. Their success is built on others’ failure, yet relies on the false impression that most schools are inadequate.

It is not so much a battle hymn the teachers are singing but a haka cry Whatever magic the teachers believe they possess, it is overshadowed by criticising “most” schools. Each subsequent chapter uses a similar format: criticise “most schools in England”, intersperse with “research says” then triumphantly announce “we did this and it works perfectly”. A didactic, teaching-me-to-suck-eggs chapter was flick through-able which I did… quickly. However, the book goes downhill after this.

Joe Kirby writes an interesting chapter on curriculum design mapping out and overlapping subjects chronologically. It is not so much a battle hymn the teachers are singing but a haka cry. These wards will serve you, thank you (even for a detention) while the Tiger looks on proudly. It substitutes matriarchs attempting to create divine children with teachers (at Michaela free school in north London) trying to shape disciplined and erudite scholars.īoth rely on the same premise: a strict, no-nonsense and rigorous regime underpinned with fierce competition because the outside world is cold and unforgiving. This book is a pastiche of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.

Battle hymn of the tiger