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Katharine birbalsinghs around the country, if you could kind of drop them, we could have schools all over the country like that with the results? even your arch critics can't deny that you have very, very good results at your school. that's exactly right. and when you were saying about me being this strict disciplinarian, and i feel that there's a culture of excuses and so on, that's in oursociety, notjust in our schools. in 2021, we as a people are letting ourselves down and letting our children down because we're not expecting enough of them. now, what's interesting is you did a whole series...

With nick robinson. she's been called the strictest headteacher in britain, a teacher who argues that the state education system is broken because of what she calls a culture of excuses of low standards, something that permits chaos in the classroom. my guest this week on political thinking — the programme where we have a conversation, not an interrogation, about what shapes the thinking of someone who helps shape our political thinking — is katharine birbalsingh. she's the head of a free school, called michaela school, near wembley, and she's just been appointed as the new chair of the so...

You think it's absurd? well, all of that, really. it's a bit funny. i think people imagine that i walk up and down the corridors with whips and chains, when actually i'm often in my office, meeting teachers. what does strict mean is, what i'd say. it means immersing children in love and keeping your standards high with regard to your expectations, both in terms of discipline and in terms of what you can teach them. that's what strict is. and the children always prefer the strictest teachers at school. think about who you liked at school. it was the ones that had the highest expectations of you...

That way, because i don't think anyone ever said that. i mean, at least i didn't say that to my face. what they'd say were things like we'd be trying to set up our school, having a parents evening, and they would come and stand amongst the parents and start shouting at me about how i betrayed them. betrayed why do you think? well, that's what's interesting. i do think it's because i'm a black woman and i'm state educated and i worked in state education all my life. therefore, i'm sort of owned by the left. so they weren't as articulate as what you just said. they just got very upset. and i'd b...

Small c conservatism is the thing that allows for so many to make the most of their lives, to live lives that have depth, that have real meaning to them, where you're notjust blaming the outside world all the time. as i always say to the children at school, there may very well be racism and sexism and so on, but you've got one life and you've got to grab it by the horns and you've got to do what you can with what you've got. and that doesn't mean that you're not going to be oppressed and there won't be obstacles. clearly, there's a very strong argument that that makes sense at an individual le...