A GOVERNMENT body in charge of helping disadvantaged children is likely to be led by Britain's strictest head teacher.
According to the Sunday Times, Katharine Birbalsingh has been lined up by ministers to help prime minister Boris Johnson's plans for “levelling up” in disadvantaged communities and lead the Social Mobility Commission.
A Conservative, Birbalsingh runs the Michaela Community School in Wembley, north London, and has often spoken out against "woke" politics.
She made news in 2010 when she received a standing ovation at the Conservative Party conference where she called out Britain's "broken" education system.
During then education secretary Michael Gove’s contentious reforms in the sector, Birbalsingh lost her job as deputy head at an inner-city academy in Camberwell, south London. But in September 2014, she became the founder and headmistress of the Michaela free school, set up in a converted office block close to Wembley Stadium.
She is known as the “tiger headmistress” for implementing an uncompromising “no excuses” behaviour policy at her school. Pupils received demerits or detention for forgetting to bring pencil or pen, or for talking in corridors between lessons.
Michaela has been declared “outstanding” in all areas by Ofsted inspectors.
When the school got its first set of GCSE results in 2019, more than half (54 per cent) of all grades were level 7 or above (equivalent to the old-style A-A*), more than double the national average of 22 per cent.
Reports suggest that Birbalsingh was one of six candidates interviewed for the Social Mobility Commission job.
A decision is yet to be taken.
Johnson’s Downing Street aides Munira Mirza, the head of policy, and her husband Douglas Smith, are believed to be supportive of Birbalsingh’s selection, media reports added.
Zia Yusuf
Sunak with Boris Johnson
Sunak with Suella Braverman